I come from a family of teachers.  My grandmother, my mother, my father… and me (almost).  Connected with this, but not a direct cause, is the fact that I have a really close family.  We still eat dinner together, and go on family outings, even family trips.  This past weekend was one of those times.

Being that my sister is a senior in high school, my parents decided to drag me along for trip to Pennsylvania, to vistit prospective colleges for my sister.  The prolonged periods of sitting in our old van, going from  Levittown to Philadelphia to Lancaster … really wasn’t that bad (like I said, we’re a close family), but the most exciting was Philadelphia.  Not because of the city itself, nor because of their beautiful Art Museum (although that did contribute), but rather my unexpected encounter with math.

Mathematics is everywhere, and I had met with math in the contours of “The Thinker” (Rodin Museum), in the patterns of the Art Museum’s architecture, in the flow of the Waterworks museum, in the placement of the wedding chairs (on the patio by the river), in the structured movement of the cars racing past.  Still, these are things that make math beautiful to me everyday, but it wasn’t until I was in the Perelman Building where I was most joyed for the day.

I was walking out of Mary Ellen Mark’s Prom exhibit, and I almost missed it.  It was in a small alcove, the type that has a door labeled “For Staff Only” or something like that.  For some reason, I decided to turn, and glance inside.  Immediately, I saw a circle.  Boldly drawn in dark black. Startled, I looked closer, only to find more mathematics.  Lines reached in, and out, through, across and under this circle, lines all drawn, on this white washed wall, so lightly, so delicately in pencil, like I could smudge or erase them if I desired. Then, to the left a little was writing, maybe a two feet by two feet of tiny, pencil strewn writing. Once again, I need to mentally zoom, and I see geometric facts; knowledge of angles, side proportions, and circles.  Geometry drawn across this wall – geometry as an art exhibit! Neatly tucked away, but visible to those who looked.  I called my sister and parents over, “Look! A geometry piece – come see!” They humor me and walk just as quickly away.  Maybe it was the fact that it was so unexpected, or maybe because it was plastered there on the wall of the art museum, but I just stared. It was beautiful.  Math is beautiful.

I feel redundant, for try as I might, I cannot convince you of the beauty of mathematics by continually restating it.  There are certain truths just like that in the world, that must be experienced rather than verbalized.  So, for this case I took a picture.  View it without the blinders you may have developed after your middle school/high school dealings with geometry.  Instead, see it as it was in this museum, a work of art. (… and forgive my poor photo qualities)

facts and statements

The Circle and the lines