National Museum of Mathematics

21 Cool and Unusual Kid-Friendly Places in New York City

"Inaugurated in 2012 after the Long Island Goudreau Museum of Mathematics closed, the MoMath is a one-of-a-kind museum dedicated to a subject often discussed but rarely “seen:” Math. A playground for both the young and the less young, the MoMath is a place curated to satisfy both sides of your brain. Conceived as a two-story-tall tech fair, the MoMath might open your eyes to how mathematics underpin so much of our daily life, from the shapes of nature to architecture, technology and art. But the museum doesn’t try to bog visitors down under deep layers of complex formulas and algebraic nightmares. Instead, the objective is to give people a sensory experience of what mathematical abstractions look and behave like in real life, presenting concepts of rational interaction to the extreme limits of intuitive delight and visual wonder. Bicycles with square wheels, sculptures of light and sound reacting to your touch, and other exhibits that would make Dr. Who’s droids seriously jealous await patrons at every turn. An immersive video set that will turn your slightest movements into dynamic fractal fun, and other tricks of perception await and also educate the curious. So if you want to spend a memorable afternoon in a never-ending realm of numeric functions, enhance your Rubik’s cube solving abilities, or just fool around with lasers and calculating machines, don’t waste time (Math doesn’t like it)! Go to MoMath, where the densely rational becomes fun." - ATLAS_OBSCURA