Last weekend we headed to MoMath for some fun with mathematics. MoMath is the National Museum of Mathematics. It has only been open since 2012 and is the only museum dedicated to mathematics in North America.

MoMath is located on 26th street opposite Madison Square Park, so to start off our day we had a quick play at the playground to burn off some steam.

Enjoying the slide.

Flying through the air!

After our play in the park we headed straight to MoMath. Tate absolutely loved reading the sign and can now spell MoMath to everyone!

The first thing we did was check out a display called Light Grooves. It was pretty cool!

Light grooves.

Next we visited the Structure Studio where you can make mathematical type structures out of sticks and balls with different shaped holes in them. While Richard attempted to make an interesting shape, Tate put me to work making letters for him. The letters were not an easy task!

Some example of cool designs.

Richard and Tate working together.

A letter A.

Our designs.

The next exhibit we checkout was very cool. It was a square wheeled bike! Tate took a spin with one of the guides.

Going for a spin!

“A square wheeled bike, how can this be?”

Tate’s favourite exhibit was the next one we checked out. It was called Tracks of Galileo. The point of the exhibit was to adjust the tracks to find the fastest path down to the bottom. Tate just enjoyed driving the car along the track!

What fun!

He got very upset when he had to leave!

Shapes of Space, the next exhibit, was a little bit tricky for a two year old to do. But none the less, Tate gave it a good go! They had three different curved surfaces with air holes. Once turned on you could then fit together shapes to fill the surface.

Working on shape number one.

Surface number two.

The final design.

After this we headed to the other floor to check out more maths exhibits. First up was the Math Square where they project maths games onto the floor. We only looked at one but it changed at least once whilst we were on this floor.

Tate doing the maze with the help of Richard.

Next came the Harmony of Spheres. It was supposed to make music but wasn’t working. Tate enjoyed touching the spheres and making them light up anyway.

It takes its shape from the symmetries of the 12 tone musical scale.

Tate pressing one of the spheres.

In the middle of the room stood the Enigma Cafe which had small tables with different puzzles for people to try and solve. Tate enjoyed trying different ones with Richard.

Trying to fit the pieces together to make a solid rectangle.

Tate’s favourite puzzle. No surprise there!

“Yay! I fit them all in the box!”

After this we played around taking pictures of ourselves and then making wacky faces.

Taking a normal photo.

Wacky face number one.

Wacky face number two.

My favourite exhibit was up next. It was called Human Tree. Standing in front of a screen you could make smaller copies of yourself into a fractal tree that moved along with you.

Tate was too small to create anything bigger than a bush!

With Richard helping they could make a big tree!

Here’s how they did it.

Such a cool tree!

There were so many more exhibits to enjoy at MoMath. I can see MoMath being a fun place to go back to as Tate gets older and begins to understand the complexities of math. They even hold birthday parties there. We saw one in progress and the kids seemed to be having a great time!