Education in the Museum. Part 2: The Shortest Line

For centuries, mathematics has been used on other fields of science. An example of its use in geography was projection, enabling the representation of Earth's surface on two-dimensional paper sheet.

Such projections, however, always cause distortions of image. For this reason, the shortest line between two points on a map and on a globe may not always be the same. This fact can be experienced on "The shortest line" site.

The exhibition prepared by the JU Museum enables the visitors to explore selected mathematical problems by free experimentation and play. A visitor is able to impersonate a Renaissance-age painter studying the rules of perspective, or become a student of Pythagoras, who uses a monochord to find the mathematical rules behind musical chords. Even the name geometry suggests its connection to measuring of Earth's surface. Means of measuring may wary – from a simple string, used to determine a right angle, to advanced measuring tools with appliance of trigonometric functions – all this can be learned in the exhibition. One of the most basic mathematical skills is making the four basic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. A visitor will learn the nearly forgotten instruments and unusual methods of calculation.