Mathematica popularized the field of math and delighted viewers with its accessible, informal and hands-on approach-without talking down to its audiences or oversimplifying its complex subjects. Individual viewing stations beckoned guests to watch “peep shows,” where playful animated films offered two-minute lessons on symmetry, powers of numbers and other mathematical concepts. The bubbles that stretched between the wires showed a visual math form of minimal surfaces. Elsewhere, wire structures emerged from soapy water.
At the multiplication cube, 512 lightbulbs arranged in a cube flashed responses to multiplication problems typed into a keyboard by visitors. The sprawling exhibit included interactive stations demonstrating concepts such as celestial mechanics, the Möbius strip and projective geometry. The company turned to the Eameses, who designed a display that, in the words of Charles Eames, would “let the fun out of the bag.” Planning a new science wing to debut in 1961, the California Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles asked IBM for a contribution. Mathematica, the first interactive exhibit to make math its subject. This deeper, long-term educational mission was central to Watson Jr.’s notion that “good design is good business.” And central to that mission was the work of the Eameses.Īrguably, the signature example of their efforts for IBM was But it was his son who launched what became the shadow function of IBM: educating the world on the nature and potential of information, science and mathematics.
had lofty ambitions for its impact on the world. But when your ambition isn’t just to build information technology, but an information age-that’s different.įrom the company’s earliest days, Thomas Watson Sr.
#Power of ten movie how to#
Maybe you also help people learn how to use them. When you just want to sell machines, you describe their features and functions. Why would a corporation do that? The answer says a lot about this particular company’s idea of its purpose.
0 kommentar(er)
