Musings on the Science Museum's Maths Gallery

I love the Science Museum and visit regularly. Mathematics: The Winton Gallery opened in December 2016 and I was lucky enough to visit very early on as part of the Christmaths event organised by the highly influential maths resources twit^[1] Jo Morgan, and I've visited a small handful of times since, including yesterday.

Photo by T.Briggs 2019: The H.P. 39 "Gugnuc" biplane that forms the centerpiece of the exhibition, surrounded by wibbly representations of airflow patterns around the machine in flight

Since my very first viewing I have had very mixed feelings. Walking through the entrance and seeing that biplane suspended in its own purple-hued airflow patterns frozen in time and made solid has a big impact, and whilst there is no real narrative to the exhibition it's soon apparent that the objects displayed are arranged in thematically-linked collections, and the invitation to just explore is palpable.

The collection is a fascinating and eclectic selection of machinery, gizmos and a little bit of art. Each is accompanied by a short and simple panel of text telling you what it is and... not much else. Very soon, the realisation hits you, a mathematics educator (as most people who stumble upon this post will no doubt be): hang on a sec... this is supposed to be a mathematics gallery. Where's the maths?

There isn't any. Not one bit, that I could find. What there is, in most of the panels, is a sentence like "mathematicians used this to...", "some mathematicians worked out that..." or "...uses mathematics to...".

When I first heard about the idea of the maths gallery I was excited. Finally! An exhibition that not only allows the word "mathematics" to be uttered in polite company, but actually has that most ancient, hallowed (and, unfortunately, oft-reviled) of all subjects as the very core of its being

So while this represents a very^[2] small step in the right direction it falls far short of my expectations. As an outspoken fan and educator of mathematics in every situation and on every conceivable occasion^[3] I'm often on the receiving end of negativity regarding mathematics. Either in general, its worth and usefulness, or self-perceptions of ability in the subject. So many misconceptions abound surrounding mathematics, and one of the deepest, most virulent, and heinously incorrect of these is it's not for me:

Mathematics is for clever people, for boring people, for nerdy people, for saaaaad people. It's for geniuses and for people whose brains just work that way. It's not for me. I cannot engage with mathematics because I'm not part of that crowd, I don't have the knowledge, ability, skills, and connection to some Other World that is required to do so. It's not for me. It doesn't impinge on my life in any way, it's all about multiplying quickly in my head and I'm no good at that and I don't need to anyway. It's not for me.

For a group that states its vision as;

A society that celebrates science, technology and engineering and their impact on our lives, now and in the future.^[4]

a key aim of any exhibition must surely be to reduce the perceived distance between the chosen subject and its audience. The Winton Gallery attempts little more than a token gesture at this, with the positive message from each of the text panels seemingly being somebody did some maths at some point.

Unfortunately, the negative messages from the same texts are, in my opinion, much louder and far clearer. The fact that no attempt is made at any point to explain, describe, or even demonstrate any of the maths on offer perpetuates one clear message: it's too hard for you to understand. I don't think I'm far off the mark when I say that this is against one of the key tenets of the growing body of mathematics communicators

in the UK and around the world.

There's a wealth of mathematics that could be drawn out of every single one of the objects on display in this gallery, and much of it would certainly be accessible to the average museum-goer. True, most of the objects would require a degree-level education in maths as a bare minimum to fully understand what's going on under the bonnet, but most of that has its roots in topics that are familiar to today's GCSE students, and some to those who are earlier in their school careers.

I overheard a child talking to their parent in the gallery: "it's supposed to be maths, but there's no sums, mum." Maths ain't all about sums, but a lot of people think it is. This exhibition doesn't do anything to correct that misconception. Not only could some of the mathematics at the root of these technological solutions be shown to visitors without risking them scurrying for the nearest exit, but the museum could take a leaf out of its own book from various other parts of the museum and actually give visitors something to do. In fact, the exhibitions linked in the previous sentence all contain far more opportunity to play with maths than this one does. They just don't say that's what it is.

In the Winton Gallery there's an Enigma machine, with no real discussion as to why it belongs there. You can play with an emulator on a tablet next to it, but it's hard to pluck any mathematical meaning from it.

Enigma machine, 1934 by Science Museum Group on Sketchfab

There's an anamorphic painting, so why isn't there an activity on anamorphic drawing? There's an abacus, but no big, tactile recreation with slidey beads and examples to follow. There are scale models of radio masts, but the opportunity to include either some kind of scale model building activity or some shapes to play with and find out why they're made from triangles is completely lost.

The entire exhibition is one massive lost opportunity. There is maths oozing out of the walls, floor, ceiling and each and every object, but it's as if every effort has been made to sweep it up and shove it behind the curtain lest anybody notices. It has wimped out on what should have been its primary goal; to invite the general public, many of whom quiver in terror at the mere mention of the m-word, to play and explore and get up to their elbows in interesting, accessible, glorious maths.

Instead, the idea that mathematics is static, dry and inaccessible to all but the most gifted is given another little boost.

Just to finish on a positive note, I visited yesterday primarily to visit the new Top Secret exhibition, part of GCHQ's centenary celebrations. It was really very good. Funnily enough there is an Enigma machine in this exhibition, too, as well as a giant walk-on anamorphic image and a Lego recreation of the GCHQ, erm, HQ, which has a text panel reminiscent of those in the Winton Gallery a few floors above. Here, the title of the exhibition isn't leading me to expect more from the mathematical content, so it's fine. There are some codebreaking activities to be found elsewhere, though...

Photo by T.Briggs 2019: GCHQ's Doughnut rendered in Lego

Have you visited the Winton Gallery? What did you think?

Footnotes

1. That's what they call people on twitter, right? (back)
2. very (back)
3. And a few inconceivable ones (back)
4. I notice that "mathematics" is conspicuously absent from this list. (back)