Museum Of Math

Last night the Gotham Gal and I were out and about town attending some holiday parties. One of them was on 26th street, on the north side of Madison Square Park. As we arrived at the building we were headed to, I saw this:

Museum of math

Somehow I had missed the news. The Museum of Mathematics has opened in NYC on the north side of Madison Square Park.

We did not go in. The museum had closed by the time we were there. I am eager to return and check it out. I am and have always been a math geek. And I love teaching math to my kids and anyone who will listen. It is magical stuff when you understand it.

I am so happy we have a place where we can take kids in NYC, either on field trips or family outings, to get them into math and all that it can lead to in their lives. Here’s a short photo tour that gives a glimpse of what it is like.

Update:

Jason sent me this video. I am adding it to this post.

#hacking education#NYC

Comments (Archived):

  1. Rohan

    AH! Geek heaven..

  2. takingpitches

    5 REM Program for a great day for a brown geek!10 Museum of Math.20 Then walk two blocks east to Lex and get a dosa at Saravanas30 END

    1. fredwilson

      i may have to do that today

      1. takingpitches

        Good late afternoon plan with giants game at 1, jets game tmrw night!

    2. Richard

      Basic

  3. kidmercury

    this is a non-profit thing right? like people donate to make it happen, and then include some business model type stuff like merchandise? i really struggle to understand museums. to me it seems like they would be better of using a for profit model, and i don’t understand why people donate to them relative to all the other causes out there. although i know donating is a personal thing, so i guess this just resonates with some people. i bet they could turn a good profit as a business, though. i might pay an admission ticket to get in there. i wouldn’t donate though.

    1. fredwilson

      i think it is a non profit. i don’t really care how it is financed. just that it exists.

    2. Richard

      WIth all due respect, your on the “ignorance cliff” with this one.

      1. kidmercury

        lol, well since you backed up your point very well, clearly your right!

        1. Richard

          Go to the Rothco Chapel in Houston, nothing but an octagon, yet powerful enough to elicit a state of medication that has energised musicians and thinkers with its 14 black paintings.

          1. kidmercury

            that’s all good and well, although i’m not sure how any of that relates to my comment, or your decision to insult me.

          2. Richard

            You’re a pretty bold guy who tosses out many a bold statements and didn’t think you would take “ignorance” (lack of understanding_ as an insult, so i apologize. You said “i really struggle to understand museums. to me it seems like they would be better of using a for profit model, and i don’t understand why people donate to them relative to all the other causes out there” My point is that there is ample room in philanthropy for feeding the mind of the public. And while the benefits may not be countable, they are plentiful.

          3. kidmercury

            i am bold and welcome insults, so it is not a problem, i am simply looking to understand the rationale behind the insult. people can of course donate to whatever they want, to me this pales in comparison to other causes out there, i.e. when i consider how i will donate (which is an admittedly small sum) this doesn’t come anywhere near the list because the impact isn’t high enough and i’m not convinced a market-based solution isn’t advantageous here. but as noted people can donate as they please, and as @domainregistry:disqus noted donations are often made as an investment in developing one’s network, which i think makes great sense.

          4. JamesHRH

            Donations are a form of self expression.

          5. ShanaC

            Thank you for apologizing.

          6. Dave W Baldwin

            …and the measure re plentiful is bigger than countable! Thanks for posting that. Silver spoons can keep their silver and those with more integrity can provide the pot of gold.

          7. ShanaC

            Guys….I feel like I am turning into mom here. I’m too young for that….

          8. ShanaC

            Because Rothko is a god at these things. it is a pity that he committed suicide after completing those paintings.

    3. LE

      “why people donate to them relative to all the other causes out there”Reasons include both altruistic and non-altruistic reasons. You support my foundation and I’ll support your foundation.Get to go to parties, mingle with the right people, do the charity circuit etc. Not saying this is the reason everybody does this of course. But no question this motivates a large amount of charity giving among the moneyed class.Bottom line is if you have money you can certainly buy yourself into the right crowds and mingle with (what some would call) the better class.Let’s take an example. You are a very wealthy person with money to support causes. Is it more uplifting to give to the robin hood foundation and mingle with the musicians that supported the “jingle ball for grandparents”(thanks for that gotham gal) or to spend your time in a room with florescent lighting in Newark or Harlam with poor people?Much of charity is fed by positive feedback and being able to associate with the right people. Not all. But a large part.

      1. kidmercury

        ahh that’s a good point. i might donate to something like this if i viewed it as a cost-effective investment in networking.

        1. LE

          As suggested before watch on Netflix Jamie Johnson’s excellent “Born Rich and The One Percent” don’t remember that it deals with this specifically (this is my observation) but it’s the general pov of the movie.

        2. jason wright

          a kickstarter museum of math idea wouldn’t have tickled your fancy?

          1. kidmercury

            nope…..i appreciate the concept of kickstarter although i find it tough to find things i’d like to support that way. the one thing i want to support in a way that is kinda kickstarter-ish is that i am going to set up an advertising campaign on the gawk.it search engine made by @falicon . this is because i want to see the search engine succeed and i feel like i kinda know @falicon as a fellow fredland netizen. but without that emotional connection i would not be interested — and kickstarter, because it does not have a pre-existing social network or dialogue, does not offer me the emotional connection i would need to fund a project like that.if the museum was built and was selling tickets, i could see myself going there as a social activity. i would prefer they charge rather than try to socially coerce people into donating, and i wouldn’t mind paying a reasonable ticket price.

          2. Dave W Baldwin

            As one who does without looking for financial and/or photo op reward, I suggest posting admission as “$____ or donation of your choice”. I guarantee # served (including have nots) and $ gained would exceed strict fee.

          3. LE

            “rather than try to socially coerce people into donating”You don’t really have to worry about the “people” they are socially coercing into donating though. They grew a set years ago.

          4. falicon

            I take the support in any form, and for any reason, that it is given…Thanks! πŸ˜‰

          5. fredwilson

            it would have, for sure. but i still favor existence over method of getting there

    4. Wavelengths

      There are many ways to make an impact for good in people’s lives. I remember being in awe when I visited the Exploratorium in S.F. years ago. I wonder if in subtle ways that playground of science influenced people who helped create Silicon Valley.

      1. kidmercury

        yes, i agree

  4. Emeri Gent [Em]

    For me, math is the art of the past, the science of the present and the language of the future, it is good to see people organizing around the cultural impact and importance of math. It is difficult to archive math as an artifact because it is instrumental to nature, because it is the closest design approximate we humans have for nature.[Em]

    1. Wavelengths

      Elegant description.

  5. Richard

    When you go check to see if the museum covers the early chinese mathematicians. There is a book called The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art composed by several generations of scholars from the 10th–2nd century BCE, its latest stage being from the 1st century CE. This book is one of the earliest surviving mathematical texts.

    1. fredwilson

      math history. cool.

  6. Steve Hallock

    I met the couple who were starting that at a watch event I spoke at a couple years ago. Really nice people and sounded like an interesting project. As a former math major, it’s definitely right up my alley. Hopefully it will be accessible enough that the general public will have some interest in it.

    1. Richard

      What areas did you concentrate on?

    2. fredwilson

      a watch eventi guess they are watch collectors, eh?

      1. Steve Hallock

        If I remember correctly, he didn’t know much about watches but was very interested. It was an event for Citi Private Banking clients – they offer high level speakers from other “asset classes” as a value add to their 25mm+ private banking clients. He was super into cars though – drove a Tesla I believe.

        1. fredwilson

          we should make a 60 second video of this guy’s life and show it to fourth graders who aren’t sure about math!!!!

          1. Steve Hallock

            Ha! That should be the whole museum: all the cool stuff that math has afforded people to buy πŸ˜‰

  7. William Mougayar

    It’s like being a kid again, learning, discovering and applying math.The history of its making is very interesting too. It was started by a hedge fund manager after raising $22 million, and he wants to raise another $30mil to expand it further http://www.fastcompany.com/…I wonder if other MoMath exist around the world. Every large city should have a museum of math, or a dedicated section inside museums of science.

    1. LE

      It’s the hedge fund guys project and he is free to locate it where he sees fit or wants to spend his time (I would as well). That said I recognize that there are probably better places in the metro area that this could be located at much less expense and actually be able to draw larger crowds. To a student visiting from any NYC area school (on buses) it doesn’t matter that this is in that congested neighborhood at all [1] (unless there are other museums of interest there, are there?). And nobody is coming in from out of town to NYC to take advantage of this. Hotels are to expensive not to mention parking and everything else.[1] As I like to say you can take a kid on a Caribbean vacation but they will also be quite happy with the pool at the Holiday Inn in Edison NJ.

      1. William Mougayar

        Hmm. Is that location so bad? I didn’t think that would matter so much, as the museum becomes a destination anyways, no?

        1. ShanaC

          Great location on the other hand if you are visiting via subway

      2. KG18

        well a poster 2 notches above you said she will visit it the next time she is in NYC. I personally think it should go next to the NY Hall of Science in Queens… but the fact that it is a Manhattan location automatically increases the “chance encounter”. Apparently they are looking for 60k visitors per year… I see no reason that shouldn’t be achieved. But hey – it’s not tax payer dollars so he could put it wherever he wants. I personally will try to visit.

    2. KG18

      they said it’s the first math dedicated one in the US… but not sure about the world. Being that the NYU Courant institute is so highly regarded in math – they should leverage that.

    1. fredwilson

      zero is an amazing number

      1. Dave W Baldwin

        Just as amazing, the race to achieving how close you can get there…

      2. Richard

        7 or 8 zeros are pretty darn cool as well.

  8. RudyC

    I just wanted to say that I appreciate the fact that your NOT writing about the shootings It goes without saying that it is absolutely horrible but the feeding frenzy of the press just makes things worse, in my opinion. Thank you very much for NOT joining the bandwagon.As for math, it’s really kind of sad actually that kids don’t see math as cool..It does run the world..

    1. fredwilson

      i am working on something behind the scenes on that issue. i care about it deeply. stay tuned.

      1. Tom Labus

        Bloomberg was on Meet the Press and did a great job on this issue. He wants to see some action from President Obama.

        1. fredwilson

          Me too. The effort I am working on involves the Bloomberg folks but is broader than that

        2. kidmercury

          i hope they ban 3D printing. that’s the only way to ensure firearms distribution is under strict control.

          1. ShanaC

            I don’t. I want to do what the mint does – mandate software making it impossible to print a gun.

          2. kidmercury

            yes i agree with you that is also a good solution. to do that, though, we would need to put all computers under strict surveillance, so that the government could examine all software being created and decide which software is sufficiently non-violent. perhaps to be extra safe we should do both: ban 3D printers and require government approval of all software. then we would be 100% safe and not having anything to worry about.

          3. Dale Allyn

            Please, let’s also ban sharp items, volatile chemicals, automobiles and bad attitudes.

          4. kidmercury

            yes great points, i agree 100%

          5. LE

            Also Mothers who buy assault rifles for their unstable children.

          6. Dale Allyn

            Absolutely. Common sense is a wonderful attribute, too often absent.

          7. Wavelengths

            Great idea! Especially since we know that the government always operates in our best interest. πŸ˜‰

          8. Dave Pinsen

            Just to be extra safe, we should establish a School Security Administration (SSA), modeled on the TSA. Everyone going into a school should have to go through a Rapiscan machine or submit to a full body pat down.

          9. kidmercury

            that’s a great idea dave. the more we can make schools like prisons the safer we’ll be. boy we really are crowdsourcing a solution here! yes we can!

          10. fredwilson

            that happens in NYC. it is awful. much better to make the fucking assault weapons illegal.

          11. Dave Pinsen

            A mass murderer can kill and wound an awful lot of victims without an assault rifle. The one at VA Tech killed 32 with pistols. And since criminals will violate any ban anyway (assault rifles are already illegal in CT), why not allow properly vetted and trained teachers to carry concealed weapons? An armed teacher could have stopped the Newtown massacre before so many were killed.

          12. kidmercury

            all these mass murderer people are on psychotropic drugs. ban a gun and they’ll bring a grenade (if we make the highly dubious assumption they actually obey the gun ban). then we’ll see a ban on grenades, which basically amounts to a ban on household cleaning products…….perhaps banning cleanliness is the solution!

          13. fredwilson

            Mutually assured destruction. I am in favor of disarmament instead. Nobody needs an assault weapon. They are weapons of mass destruction.Just because someone can kill people with a knife or shotgun as well isn’t a valid argument to allow folks to walk around with weapons designed to kill dozens of people at a time.

          14. JLM

            .An assault weapon is defined by its barrel length, shoulder stock, magazine capacity and it semi-automatic firing capability.It is in effect differentiated from say a “long rifle” such as a military M-1 or M-14.Or a long hunting rifle like my vintage pre-World II Sako 7mm magnum or my Belgian Browning 1938 over-under shot gun.We had an assault rifle ban for 10 years and it was allowed to expire. The politicians are gutless.The real problem is the people and the access to the weapons.A crazy person is not going to be deterred because he cannot use an assault rifle.More deaths are attributable to inexpensive handguns than to any other type of weapon. I suspect that over 500 will be killed in Chicago this year — 99% handguns.And, yet, the rate of violent crime is steadily DECREASING particularly in states with concealed handgun laws. Violent crime stats are down about 5% in the entire country in 2011. FBI stats.Gun purchases are up 16.5% in the US, primarily pistols..

          15. Dave W Baldwin

            Keep the message re over reacting. Two things regarding this episode based on reports- 1) the mother was stock piling re anarchy, we need to realize kids hear what we say and 2) he did try to buy a gun and was turned down, hence his only recourse was to take her’s in the horrific first action of the day.A discussion that looks at all issues instead of banning guns is going to leap into privacy and so on…

          16. JamesHRH

            crime rates – all of them – are driven by demographics.

          17. kidmercury

            3D printers are capable of making assault weapons — http://www.popsci.com/techn… — so hopefully the new regulation will start there.

          18. fredwilson

            If you make assault weapons illegal then 3D printing them would be illegal too. Chemistry sets are legal. Making crystal meth is not.I am not a libertarian on this issue and never will be.

          19. kidmercury

            that’s all good and well, my point is that 3D printing must be addressed for there to be any meaningful gun legislation. in fact that should really be the starting point. whether you want to ban them or just highly regulate them is up to whoever is interested in such laws. but if you want to ban assault weapons, dealing with the 3D printing issue is obviously a must, as otherwise people will just print them at home if left completely unchecked.

          20. fredwilson

            You don’t need to deal with 3D printing anymore than you need to deal with metal lathing. You need to make the god damn things illegal.

          21. kidmercury

            okay, sure, let’s assume it’s illegal. so this is going to stop anyone from printing one at home? are anti-piracy laws stopping piracy? in any event, congress is already discussing banning 3D printed weapons — http://mashable.com/2012/12… — so you guys may get what you wish for.

          22. fredwilson

            just because some people will violate the laws doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the laws. this is exactly the bullshit that the NRA has been feeding the american public for years and it is nonsense. i am surprised to see you feeding it back.

          23. JLM

            .You may be over reacting as it relates to the NRA.The NRA is opposed to gun CONTROL. The banning of guns.The NRa would support gun REGULATION. I belong to the NRA. I would support tough regulation focused on crazy people and gun safety by responsible owners.NY has great gun laws in the view of some and yet they are not fiercely enforced.Criminal gun crime is not going to be subdued by passing MORE laws. WTF, you are already dealing with law breakers already. Murder is against the law.Get the NRA to lead the parade and do it under the umbrella of regulation not control.It will be an incremental process. Nobody in the NRA wants this crazy kid to have access to a gun. Nobody in the NRA wants the Mom to store her weapons in a manner that this crazy kid could get access to them.This incident may be the game changer. This sick fuck shot some of these kids 10 times. Evil..

          24. Ellie Kesselman

            I had wonderful, positive experiences as a member of the NRA when I worked for IBM GPD San Jose, 20 years ago. Through rifle marksmanship, I finally found a way to interact naturally with my co-worker engineers: all men, some were almost as old as my father. I went to competitions, outdoor ranges, learned not to be afraid of guns. (I never used a handgun, know nothing about them, only my single-shot, bolt-action, wood stock .22 Remington long rifle, which I turned over to the NYPD the first day I started work in Manhattan).The NRA may have changed, I don’t know. What I do know is that safety was first, before everything. The marksmanship course that I took at the San Jose Municipal Range met for 3 hours every Saturday morning, for 18 consecutive weeks. It cost $50, total, including ammo and use of a tripod spotting scope. There were about a dozen students: 12 – 16 year old boys and 22 year old me. We were supervised by no fewer than 5 instructors, all NRA members and engineers or researchers at IBM Almaden, plus a balding lady who used a scooter chair, who would yell at us if she didn’t think we were sufficiently attentive to the rules.I see no need for assault weapons of the automatic variety, nor any semi-automatic firearms unless… there are reasons e.g. growing up with a mother and sisters on the edge of the reservation, in a trailer, with strange men knocking on the door at night. That was the situation for a programmer who worked for me a few years ago, a Navajo woman. This isn’t a straightforward matter.

          25. kidmercury

            i don’t see it as bullshit, i see it as substantiated by statistics, history, and a fuller analysis of what causes mass murders — while also being cognizant of the unintended consequences of passing laws. england has a complete gun ban. gun crimes are up 35% this year.the reason gun rights are important is protection from government which is the whole reason the 2nd amendment was passed in the first place. if government is allowed technology the people must be allowed the same technology because government is nothing more than people wearing uniforms. that’s why access to all these weapons is important and is deeply embedded in the DNA of the USA.the real problem is psychotropic drugs. all these mass murderers are on them. ban whatever you want, it won’t make a difference until the drug issue is dealt with. these are not stupid people and they will find a way around whatever trivial law is passed. they are sick people infected by drugs.

          26. Cam MacRae

            a) That figure is from 2003.b) England has a homicide by firearm rate of 0.07 per 100,000 pop [2008-2010], 0.04 per 100,000 [2011, WHO2012]. The USA has a homicide by firearm rate of 2.97 per 100,000 [2008-2010].c) Percentages are incredibly misleading to the statistically innumerate. (Which is nearly everyone.)

          27. kidmercury

            my bad, you are correct. still, though, i think there is much that can be cited that the legality of firearms diverges from firearm-related crimes, and that the number of crimes prevented due to firearms far surpasses the number of crimes enabled by firearms. here are some supporting stats on australia: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd… and on the US: http://www.justfacts.com/gu

          28. Cam MacRae

            I’ve read an awful lot of peer reviewed papers on the matter — your link isn’t a good one. The increase in violent crime can be largely attributed to assaults. Homicide by firearm was falling prior to the gun buy back, and has continued to fall. Most models I’ve seen fail to establish that the buy back had a significant impact on the rate of decline.Edit — reply truncated for some reason. The guts of the rest was that we started from a different place. By the time of the buy back community attitudes were already such that one didn’t admit to ownership in polite company.

          29. Wavelengths

            Nice use of a word more people should understand: innumerate.

          30. JLM

            .The only real chance for improvement is at the nexus between the person and the gun. When an individual buys a gun there has to be a maximum effort to ensure the person is not a nut and is not likely to become a nut. This will take 30 days to do correctly.This is like learning to fly an airplane. You have to take instruction, get the approval and recommendation of your instructor, take a written test and then take a test from a Designated Examiner.Then you get re-examined every two years. Part of the re-examination is a simple physical observation.You have to have a flight physical every year or every two years depending upon what license you hold.Guns need to be the same.The next inflection point is gun storage, safety and accountability. Not unlike the requirement to register an airplane. Physical location must be approved.Then there has be management of “exceptions” — the guy in Colorado bought 4 guns and 10K rounds in 60 days. Get this info and go see him.Someone smart and with credibility needs to go right to the NRA and ask them to write the legislation. I’m an NRA member and I would agree to all of this..

          31. fredwilson

            Jeff – I agree with you so much on this. I feel like you have read my mind. Its like the Israelis and airport security. They rely less on scanners and more on understanding the person. Of course that is only part of it. Because as this most recent tragedy points out the mom owned the guns and wasn’t nuts. Her son was and he killed her and a bunch more. So the guns have to be locked up too.

          32. ShanaC

            you do realize I agree with you, but the NRA doesn’t…

          33. PhilipSugar

            I agree completely but here is the rub. (I’ve talked to some senior people at the NRA)They believe that once you start down that road, once you have a chink in the armor, it will give those that want an all out ban, a start, and they will push to see it finished.Unfortunately, its not a totally illogical argument. You see what happened with cigarettes, the auto industry etc.Once you get regulators in your business, they don’t look to stop, the look to increase.

          34. Wavelengths

            The problem I see is that “problem-solvers” need problems to solve. When they start running out of “problems” they look for more “problems,” and with their narrow vision, they are likely to be focusing on swatting flies while ignoring the elephant in the room.

          35. JLM

            .This kid was a very sick fuck. Sad really. Evil let loose on the earth..

          36. JLM

            .We had an assault gun ban for 10 years — no appreciable, discernible impact on gun crime. Nonetheless, the politicians let it lapse. Why? No balls.The issue is people, guns, gun regulation, gun security and culture.People and culture are arguable more important than guns.Having said that there are a lot of straight forward regulatory initiatives that are still worth kicking around.Gun regulation does NOT = gun control.NY has the toughest rules on the books — Sullivan Act 1911 — and it simply does NOT work.We need heightened enforcement and control of the crazy people – guns nexus..

          37. kidmercury

            vermont. most lax gun laws in the country, no permit or license required, anyone can conceal carry, no assault weapons law……2nd lowest gun homocide percentage in the country.

          38. fredwilson

            I believe the gun that killed all those little kids was bought in vermont or new hampshire. I am not positive though. Lots of conflicting info out there on the internet

          39. JLM

            .It was apparently bought by the Mom and she took her son to the rifle range to practice firing it.My Dad taught me to shoot when I was about 10.The only place I ever touched a weapon was at the range. I never even knew where they were kept.During every second I was at the range, my Father held either the weapon or all of the ammunition.The only time I had a loaded weapon was when I was in position to shoot and my Father was always within an arms length..

          40. JLM

            .Shortage of crazy people..

          41. fredwilson

            Jeff – the drop in crime in NYC over the past two decades has been remarkable. Guiliani and Bloomberg have used legislation and enforcement to drive it down. But as you say culture has also changed.Bloomberg was really good on Meet The Press today. He said we need legislation but we also need to enforce the existing legislation.

          42. JLM

            .When you see a movie like Django, typical Quentin Tarantino blood flowing orgy with tinges of cave man crude racism — you wonder why kids get crazy ideas in their heads?There is a lot of common sense regulation that can be enacted but it has to be enforced.When a kid buys 4 guns and 10K rounds of ammo in 60 days, someone needs to go see him.We have the computer capacity to drive this. Hell, they can post your Visa account in less than a minute…

          43. fredwilson

            i agree with you more than you agree with yourself

          44. JLM

            .That’s stronger than an acre of garlic, my friend..

          45. ShanaC

            that’s insane

          46. ShanaC

            banning is too extreme. There isn’t a way to do a perfect ban. Much like money there will be some people breaking the law. This just makes breaking the law very difficult (you can’t print)

        3. LE

          As Rahm Emmanuel said never let a serious crisis go to waste.

          1. kidmercury

            a crisis is like hitting the lottery for a power hungry politician…..the people will demand that they give you more power.

        4. JLM

          .The President is not trusted on this issue. A wise man would go right to the NRA — a huge special interest group with real clout — and ask them to write the legislation in secret just like Obamacare was written in secret.The NRA will write gun REGULATION legislation but will fight gun CONTROL legislation.If you let the bear set the menu, maybe he will not eat the guests. He will be too proud of his own cooking.I am an NRA member and I am in favor of extensive regulation. I will not GIVE you my guns. But I will allow them to be regulated in a sensible manner. Why not?.

          1. Tom Labus

            Of course he is, come on.One of Bloomberg’s key points yesterday was that the NRA is not an invincible foe and that he regularly takes them on in congressional races where they have dumped cash. He says he consistently beats with less of a budget.Guns are like derivatives and need some intelligent control/regs, .

      2. ShanaC

        thank you (but if you post, give some advance warning, politic posts seem to get lots of comments)

      3. rudyc

        Hey Fred, what do u think about making the schools have a lock down in effect, where the school rooms are secure enough and safe enough that NO ONE gets in. I think it is something that no one could argue about and it shouldn’t cost much money. A centralized panic button that goes straight to the police department and bolt locks the school doors. I think in this case, it would have worked pretty well. Just a thought..

        1. fredwilson

          i don’t want my kids to go to school in a bunker

          1. Wavelengths

            Don’t we have certain rights to freedom and the pursuit of happiness?Better that we start looking harder at mental health issues than that we force everyone to wear Kevlar body armor.

          2. William Mougayar

            I hope that most people don’t see the solution as just a mental health issue.

    2. RudyC

      I didn’t think my comment would entice so much commentary and didn’t mean to. Having said that, I don’t own a gun and have no expectations of ever owning one but I do know the people that do LOVE their guns and ANY type of legislation is almost impossible, EVEN if it is reasonable.What I do hate though is reactionary laws. I think there are enough of those. What I would like to see though is some type of system where the school rooms go in lock down mode. Maybe a panic button in the admin offices where the classrooms go in lockdown. Make the windows bulletproof. Basically, a system where people can NOT get in until the area is secure. I don’t think it would cost too much and are children would be safer. It would have to be done so that the school is still a school and NOT a prison but I think EVERYONE would agree w/that.

      1. jason wright

        redesign weapons with integrated webtech.real time gps location tracking, electronic firing inhibitors, et.c.

  9. Abdallah Al-Hakim

    very cool to read this. I was celebrating my 7-year old nephew’s birthday yesterday and got talking with him about school. Most of his grades are not great for now (average Cs and B-) but he is getting A+ in math! I asked him how come and his answer was that math is cool!

    1. fredwilson

      i hope he sticks with it. people who gets As in math are valuable.

      1. Cam MacRae

        People who get As and math *and* < insert language of choice > are ^10 more valuable.

  10. lisa hickey

    I’m so excited! I had just done a speaking engagement the other day where I put up a slide that said “Art + Math”. And I talked about how when I went off to college, I wanted to study both, but couldn’t find anyone who could tell me how the practical application of both could actually work. Fast forward several decades — I’m an Entrepreneur — bingo! The vision is the art, using numbers to act strategically, scale and grow is the math. I’ve never been happier. Agree with William who says discovering and applying math is like being a kid again.Will seek out the Museum of Math next time I’m in NYC. Yay! Thanks!

  11. Christa R Avampato

    Hi Fred,It just had a soft opening last week that was not well publicized. I learned about it a few months ago as I was looking around for cool educational places to hold an event for the National STEM Video Game Challenge. (http://stemchallenge.org) I agree that this is a wonderful addition to the museum landscape in NYC. I can’t wait to go!

    1. fredwilson

      OMG. i am adding this video to my post. thanks!!!

      1. jason wright

        i’m convinced – it’s a cool place. math was never like this in my world.

    2. Mark Essel

      wish I checked this post earlier, Michelle and I just finished up a morning browsing sites. Headed back home and to work now.

  12. timraleigh

    Very cool! Thanks.

  13. William Mougayar

    After watching the video, I’m realizing how much interactivity is built into the various exhibits. It’s very “applied” math which makes students appreciate even more the practical side of the theories they are learning at school.

  14. ShanaC

    OK, I am going on a date here. This looks so much fun!!!!

    1. Ellie Kesselman

      Yay! I hope you have a nice time. Please consider reporting back to us, what you liked best during your visit? Here or on Pinterest ;o)

      1. ShanaC

        i will

  15. Mroberhozer

    My nerd-dom aside, there is a growing body of research around experiential education as valuable to increasing retention in math and other technical fields (a problem in the US). Not sure if this type of stuff counts as “experiential”, but it seems like museums and the like could be effective tools in gaining interest in technical fields. In addition to the research in this area, there are some federal efforts also. Fed government just released a new goal on their work around STEM: http://goals.performance.go

  16. LukeG

    took me a long time to think of math as a different kind of map, e.g.this is how this place relates to that place (distance & direction); this is how the two are different in size; the hill is *this* steep.It’s just a way of describing things, which is maybe one of the reasons it’s so powerful.

  17. JamesHRH

    William MougayarI hope people do see it primarily as a mental health issue.Here is an eye opening perspective — http://anarchistsoccermom.b…And here is the interesting part – http://sarahkendzior.com/20…Assault guns should be banned, that’s easy.Odd purchase patterns should be investigated, that’s pretty easy.Emotionally immature people with a biochemical makeup that increases the likelihood of premeditated mass violence …. that one is hard.

    1. Wavelengths

      I spent the better part of a year on a discussion board that was intended to help people whose lives had been affected by highly sociopathic or psychopathic people. There were spouses and ex-spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends, but the people whose lives were the most tragic to me were those who were dealing with their children who were as out of control as Liza Long describes her son.Again and again I heard stories of children who terrorized their families, tore holes in the walls, and acted out in ways unimaginable to anyone who hasn’t seen it, or heard similar stories over and over.All “the system” offered was “classes in parenting.” No mental health treatment was offered. The parents who communicated on the site were in the US and in Canada, and the stories were the same. For the parents, they carry the legal responsibility for the caretaking of their children, and for their actions, no matter how out of control they may be.Even when the parents knew the seriousness of their child’s disorder, there was no place to turn for help. And the children/teenagers were generally very good at turning off the behavior and putting on innocent faces when it suited them. Within my own extended family, there is an adopted child who is acting out in these ways. I know the pain the parents suffer. When the system can’t/won’t offer solutions, where do we go?And gun control is only about a side effect of the real issue.

  18. PhilipSugar

    What resources do you use to teach math? Do you have any favorites? Yes, the Kahn academy is good, but I’m looking for a good book that takes math and relates it back to the physical world, i.e. you need differential equations to model acceleration and velocity, I want every math problem to relate to solving a real problem. That is where I love math. (I also completely loose that love when it becomes purely theoretical)

    1. fredwilson

      i just use my memory of math and problems that i recall enjoying solving obviously i could and should use more than that

  19. Mario Bucolo

    Find smal and unusual museums is the reason why I create in 2001 Museumland.net the worldwide portal to museums and cultural heritage that when we stop updating it on 2007 count around 20.000 museums in 144 nations worldwide. The site is up but not update, thousand of researcher and student use it. It’s the only resource where to find small and medium museum. In NYC there are more than 70 museums…people know only 7/10, same thing in London, Wien (140 museums!!), Vancouver etc. Yes of course it is possible to search for museums in google but having a vertical portal it’s better. Unfortunatly that startup wasn’t lucky and/or able to find money to expand (think on how will be useful for cities, country etc need to adv their cultural heritage…and they need to spend money for tourism attraction) but I hope in a future to run it again.

    1. KG18

      Yup… for instance the Maritime Industry Museum is at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx. I went there once to see both. There was hardly anyone there. Literally a tour of 5 persons came through. Not counting my family – there were more fishermen than visitors to the site. I find that sad. I’m not a person who likes the art in the Cloisters or The Met (though I love the architecture of both)… I prefer to see the inner-workings of ships. I wonder how many more of me there are out there – lol.

  20. KG18

    Not sure why they didn’t put it in Queens next to the NY Hall of Science… but I guess since that’s in a public park it would have zoning issues. My thought is that the 2 should be wed together πŸ™‚