At the cusp of NASA's
first moon mission, the 1964 World's Fair in New York City inspired thousands of
young people to study math and science and pursue careers in engineering. IBM's exhibit at the Fair
-- Mathematica: A World of
Numbers...and Beyond -- encouraged future generations to appreciate
math and create the next generation of computing.
To mark the impact of
math on the world and pay tribute to the 1960s-era exhibit, IBM has created an iPad
app, Minds of Modern Mathematics,available for free (and ad-free) at the App Store.
The Mathematica
exhibit was created by famed husband-and-wife design team Charles and Ray Eames, and the app is being released during the centennial year of Ray Eames'
birth. IBM designed the app together with the Eames Office, which works to preserve the legacy of Charles and
Ray Eames.
The iPad app is a
vintage-meets-digital interactive recreation of the massive 50-foot-long
timeline poster from IBM's World Fair exhibit
that traces hundreds of artifacts, milestones and giants of math from 1000 AD
to 1960.
For students, teachers, and
tech fans of all ages, the app illustrates how mathematics has influenced
advances in art, science, music and architecture. Users can click through more
than 500 biographies, historical achievements and images culled from the
original Mathematica exhibit as well as a high-resolution image of the
timeline poster.
A Vintage App
The app also includes a
collection of short films, known as the "IBM Mathematics Peep
Show," produced by the Eameses. It's a series of playful
two-minute animated lessons on mathematical concepts, from exponents to
symmetry.
Mathematics remains essential to IBM's technological innovation. As demand grows for real-time analysis of information
gathered from sensors in roads and power grids and other sources of "big data," IBM mathematicians are
working on everything from the Jeopardy!-winning computer Watson, to
astrophysics, weather forecasting and genomics, to easing traffic congestion
and power consumption in cities around the world.
IBM, which maintains the largest mathematics department in industry, expects the app to
be used in classroom settings and beyond to spur interest in education and careers around
STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
A smaller-scale poster is still
on the walls of hundreds of schools and universities around the world and
stands as an example of IBM's and the Eames’ vision
for interactive learning and design.
