A space where mathematical ideas burst into life 

Handley Page aircraft
Swirled in action: the air flow round the Handley Page aircraft that inspired the gallery's billowing forms Credit: Science Museum

Lessons in quadratic equations, long division and trigonometry have left generations of schoolchildren asking “when will I use this in real life?”, while others carry a fear of the subject as adults.

Now, the Science Museum in London is hoping to change that. On Thursday, a new permanent gallery dedicated to the subject will open.

Designed to inspire and inform the next generation of mathematicians, “Mathematics: The Winton Gallery” will explain why maths is at the heart of everything we care about.

The space – two years in the making – spans 400 years, and includes 100 objects; each with an important role in bringing maths to life.

According to Dr David Rooney, the curator of the gallery, too often maths is seen as an internal subject, with little connection to everyday life. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“In the last two years I think it has been very clear from teachers and parents, government and industry that an awareness of mathematics is really significant to future prosperity,” he says.

“There is this real appetite for a new cultural discourse about mathematics.” 

Mathematics: The Winton Gallery
Impression of Mathematics: The Winton Gallery Credit: Science Museum

Following the UK’s less than impressive results in the OECD’s 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Government set to work establishing 35 specialist maths hubs across England to improve the country’s standing internationally.

A new, more rigorous, maths GCSE was introduced in 2015, while a £67 million investment was announced in an attempt to recruit top maths and physics graduates into teaching.

The push seems to be paying off. A major international study, published this week, revealed that England’s score in maths for both nine to 10-year-olds and 13 to 14-year-olds was at its highest point in 20 years.

While we may not have reached the dizzying heights of Singapore or Shanghai – so frequently lauded by the Government for their “maths mastery” – it seems that the subject is finally getting the attention it deserves.

But, according to Rooney, museums have a role in helping this change in narrative to continue.

“Museums are profoundly important in the learning landscape,” he says.

“What we hear loud and clear from maths educators is that there are real barriers to the continued study of mathematics. Pupils can’t see a wide range of potential career options open to them.

“The maths gallery shows that you could work anywhere with a maths education – aerospace, finance, architecture, engineering.”

Mathematical practice has shaped – and been shaped by – “fundamental human concerns”, he continues, “from life and death, war and peace, to money, trade and travel”. ]

Among a set of more traditional exhibits, including hand-held instruments, the gallery will include significant objects such as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, “a 19th-century computer”, Rooney explains.

Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine
Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine Credit: Science Museum

Another key attraction is MONIAC (Monetary National Income Analogue Computer), a 1952 model built to demonstrate how the economy works.

Standing two metres tall and designed by Bill Phillips – an economist from New Zealand – the machine used hydraulics to model the workings of the British economy.

“It used water to show the flow of money,” says Rooney.

“Essentially [the machine] is solving equations in front of you.

“You can turn a tap for the interest rate and see what happens across the whole of the economy; it’s the most staggeringly important object for expressing a mathematical world view to undergraduate students from the Fifties. We’ve been working on a touchscreen simulation so that people can have a go at operating the machine.”

The gallery will centre on a Handley Page “Gugnunc”, an experimental aeroplane built in 1929 to compete in Daniel Guggenheim’s Safe Aircraft Competition.

Risk, as Rooney argues, “is a mathematical concept”, one which we go through our lives assessing, “whether we are aware of it or not”.

In fact, Rooney says the whole gallery will “inspire” both children and adults to think differently about maths.

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the firm behind the London Olympics’ Aquatics Centre, the gallery was created using mathematical principles with the Handley Page aircraft at its centre.

Bidisha Sinha, a senior associate at the firm, worked on the project. “The entire gallery is a consequence of the movements that might have happened around the plane,” she says, “almost like a graphical representation of the air flow. So the plan, the layout, everything is driven by how the objects are flowing in the gallery space.

“A lot of the work we do has maths behind it,” she continues.

“One of [the gallery’s storylines] is architecture and the built world around it, and how mathematics is applied within that.”

Sinha maintains that the gallery will appeal to all ages.

“Nowadays, when information is so easily accessible, you don’t really need people to spoon-feed you the exact mathematical phrase. Instead, you introduce an idea.”

Rooney agrees: “[The gallery doesn’t] try to teach mathematics, because why would we want to do that in a history museum full of historical artefacts?” he asks. “It’s much more than that, it’s about telling inspiring stories about how mathematics has shaped our world.”

Mathematics: The Winton Gallery will open on 8 December 2016 at the Science Museum, London

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