{"id":5812,"date":"2018-02-14T06:42:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T11:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=5812"},"modified":"2018-02-14T07:17:44","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T12:17:44","slug":"mirror-maze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/02\/14\/mirror-maze\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit \u2018Mirror Maze\u2019 For The Dazzling Hall Of Mirrors, Stay For The Geometry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The professed aim of \u201cA Mirror Maze: Numbers In Nature\u201d<\/a>\u2014the new exhibit on view at Boston\u2019s Museum of Science through April 25\u2014is to highlights mathematical patterns in the natural world: spirals (ferns, human ears), fractals (ant hills, human lungs), and Voroni patterns (corn kernels, honeycombs for strong, efficient packing).<\/p>\n

Which is all very interesting. But the real reason you need to go is to explore the 1,700-square-foot hall of mirrors. The ‘Mirror Maze” is built on a repeating grid of triangles under the arches of stylized trees. \u201cDead ends are scattered throughout,\u201d the museum explains, \u201cand a small secret room is hidden within, rewarding you with bonus puzzles and artifacts.\u201d Magically appearing on and in the mirrors are diagrams of snowflakes and M.C. Escher<\/a> tessellations and hidden vitrines of cubes and patterned ceramics.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The “Mirror Maze” at the Boston Museum of Science. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very easy,\u201d the 8-year-old says of the maze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept thinking I saw the end, but I kept bumping into mirrors,\u201d the 5-year-old says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you keep following the left wall, you find the secret room,\u201d the 8-year-old says.<\/p>\n

We toured the maze twice. Waits to get in\u2014even on the busy Saturday we visited\u2014were only about five minutes long.<\/p>\n

\n

Help us keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activism by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
A sea fan at the Boston Museum of Science exhibit “A Mirror Maze.” (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then there are all sorts of displays and hands-on activities about mathematics, patterns and geometry in nature. You can fiddle with dials to see how fractal patterns are used to make computer-generated landscapes in movies. You can play with musical scales and pluck a harp to learn how Bach and other composers used symmetry in their musical compositions.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A 3D-printed model of human lungs at the Boston Museum of Science exhibit “A Mirror Maze.” (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Created by Chicago\u2019s Museum of Science and Industry, displays compare the fractal branching patterns of bronchial trees in human lungs (to maximizes air exchange as you breathe) to sea fans (to capture most light and food). A case highlights the symmetry in the patterns of actual beetles and butterflies.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A bighorn sheep skull at the Boston Museum of Science exhibit “A Mirror Maze.” (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can see how the outer edge of bighorn sheep horns grow more quickly than the inner edge causing them to bend into spirals. And an aluminum casting of an anthill by Alabama farmer-turned-sculptor David Gatlin shows how “The fractal branching of the anthill maximizes total tunnel length within a relatively small area.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An aluminum casting of an anthill by Alabama farmer-turned-sculptor David Gatlin at the Boston Museum of Science exhibit “A Mirror Maze.” (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The professed aim of \u201cA Mirror Maze: Numbers In Nature\u201d\u2014the new exhibit on view at Boston\u2019s Museum of Science through April 25\u2014is to highlights mathematical patterns in the natural world: spirals (ferns, human ears), fractals (ant hills, human lungs), and Voroni patterns (corn kernels, honeycombs for strong, efficient packing). Which is all very interesting. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,192,104],"tags":[37,75],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5812"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5902,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions\/5902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}