Math Midway Comes to NYSCI

Press Release

Math Midway Comes to NYSCI
12-01-09

Queens, N.Y. — The New York Hall of Science will host Math Midway—an interactive exhibition that introduces a wide array of math concepts to visitors. Guests can learn about and test theories like probability and symmetry through carnival-style games and events. Math Midway will be open in conjunction with NYSCI’s permanent exhibition, Mathematica: A World of Numbers.

Math Midway will be open from February 6 to April 18, 2010. Visitors can experience fun and challenging activities including: a surprisingly smooth ride on a square-wheeled tricycle, creating one-of-a-kind drawings using the mechanical harmonograph, composing a tune with the organ function grinder or attempting to solve one of the tricky math puzzles!

Math Midway’s more than 20 hands-on exhibits allow visitors to explore the world of pattern, shape and numbers. The exhibits include:

• Pedal on the Petals – Kids and adults can use a square-wheeled tricycle to glide around a brightly-colored sunflower track. The inverted catenary shape of the track meshes perfectly with the corners of the wheels, providing an unexpectedly smooth ride.
• Polyhedral Puzzle Plaza – Oversized toys, sticks, and cubes allow visitors to work collaboratively to create an endless variety of geometrical sculptures.
• Pirate X and Lady Y – Visitors must balance a pirate ship by placing “gold doubloons” of different weights on each side of the ship to literally balance the equation. Each doubloon’s number represents its weight, while the weights of Pirate X and Lady Y are unmarked.
• Roller Graphicoaster – Kids can build a roller coaster that they think will provide the biggest thrill. Then they drop a ball at the start of the track and watch it race down the slope as a computer automatically times its run.
• Miles of Tiles – Using brightly-colored magnetic shapes in limitless combinations, participants can cover a wall with a panorama of patterns and tessellations.
• A-Maze-ing Math – Guests have to make their way through this maze without ever making a left turn or U-turn.
• Universal Wheel of Chance – Choose a number, spin a giant wheel, and learn about probability in this fun activity.
• Amazing Acrobats – Participants work together on this colorful puzzle to create a spherical sculpture.
• The Mysterious Harmonograph – Visitors create a unique mathematical drawing by swinging a steel pendulum.

Math Midway was introduced on June 14, 2009 at the World Science Festival Street Fair in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. Created by a team of math enthusiasts dedicated to making mathematical concepts accessible and understandable to the general public, Math Midway is the only interactive Math Museum in the United States. Math Midway is presented in association with the Museum of Mathematics.