The ope­ning of the „Mathe­ma­tics Expe­rien­ce” in 2018 was pre­ce­ded by a three-year plan­ning and expan­sion pha­se of the loca­tion. A pre­vio­usly emp­ty attic area of​the buil­ding was ide­al for the reali­za­tion of the pro­ject and was conver­ted into a final­ly usa­ble faci­li­ty in vario­us expan­sion sta­ges betwe­en 2016 and 2018. A pre-opening was held in April 2018, and the offi­cial ope­ning cere­mo­ny fol­lo­wed on Sep­tem­ber 29, 2018 with a mathe­ma­ti­cal sup­por­ting pro­gram of spe­cia­list lec­tu­res in the pre­sen­ce of guests of honor from poli­tics and local schools.

As soon as you enter the „Expe­rien­ce Mathe­ma­tics”, the atten­tion to deta­il with which the faci­li­ty is desi­gned is appa­rent. Tho­se ente­ring are first gre­eted by the faci­li­ty­’s logo, which is also display­ed at the entran­ce on the gro­und flo­or and is sup­ple­men­ted with infor­ma­tion abo­ut the ope­ning times. The logo is desi­gned as a loga­ri­th­mic spi­ral and inc­lu­des the words „Expe­rien­ce Mathe­ma­tics”, whe­re­by the use of the Gre­ek let­ters ε, α, τ, which are com­mon­ly used in mathe­ma­tics, is high­li­gh­ted. In addi­tion, the pro­of of the Pytha­go­re­an the­orem and the Fibo­nac­ci num­bers can be found on the flo­or tiles in the entran­ce area.

In the main area of​the faci­li­ty, an ove­rview first illu­stra­tes the histo­ri­cal deve­lop­ment of num­bers under the vivid title „From Coun­ting to Com­pu­ters”. This covers all cul­tu­res from the Sto­ne Age onwards, and in more recent histo­ry, the area of​com­pu­ters is given par­ti­cu­lar atten­tion. In the ear­ly days of the „Mathe­ma­tics Expe­rien­ce”, this was fol­lo­wed by a hod­ge­pod­ge of main­ly textu­al infor­ma­tion on deta­iled topics in the histo­ry of mathe­ma­tics (with a focus on bio­gra­phies) and a few exhi­bits (main­ly sli­de rules). It can be seen that the faci­li­ty has expe­rien­ced con­si­de­ra­ble deve­lop­ment over the cour­se of its five-year exi­sten­ce towards a lar­ger sys­tem, a more com­pre­hen­si­ve gene­ral ove­rview and a con­si­de­ra­ble expan­sion of the inven­to­ry of objects. Cal­cu­la­ting machi­nes, sli­de rules, sli­de discs, com­pas­ses, adders, sextants, com­pu­ters, sto­ra­ge media for elec­tro­nic data, figu­res such as Keple­r’s model of the world, books and many other objects now pro­vi­de mul­ti­fa­ce­ted insi­ghts into the diver­se area of​the histo­ry of mathe­ma­tics, scien­ce and tech­no­lo­gy. A spe­cial high­li­ght is a Cur­ta cal­cu­la­tor from the 1950s, the prac­ti­cal use of which is regu­lar­ly demon­stra­ted by the ope­ra­tor during pri­va­te tours. The pro­ve­nan­ce of the objects is par­tly in the pri­va­te posses­sion of the ope­ra­tor and par­tly in dona­tions from pri­va­te col­lec­tors. A cata­lo­gue of all the exhi­bits is not cur­ren­tly ava­ila­ble, but can be con­si­de­red as a rele­vant futu­re pro­ject – per­haps on the occa­sion of fur­ther anniversaries.

Under the heading “Try­ing out mathe­ma­tics”, the appro­ach of the play­ful and prac­ti­cal aspect, which is pre­do­mi­nan­tly pro­pa­ga­ted in the modern museum land­sca­pe and museum edu­ca­tion, is not neglec­ted in the “Expe­rien­ce Mathe­ma­tics”. For exam­ple, you can tie num­bers like the Incas, cross the Königs­berg brid­ges, lay magic squ­ares, play quar­tet on the path of num­bers thro­ugh time or try your hand at cal­cu­la­ting with Neper’s rods, coun­ting rods, loga­ri­th­mic tables or “on the lines”. If a more con­tem­pla­ti­ve cha­rac­ter of acti­vi­ty is requ­ired, the reading cor­ner offers a retre­at for brow­sing in the mul­ti­fa­ce­ted libra­ry, which inc­lu­des books on the most diver­se aspects of mathe­ma­tics. As in the faci­li­ty as a who­le, here too, the focus is always on looking bey­ond the hori­zon of one’s own disci­pli­ne, and so one can, for exam­ple, find out abo­ut mathe­ma­tics and art. Fur­ther­mo­re, the alre­ady men­tio­ned atten­tion to deta­il is also mani­fe­sted in this con­text, as “geo­me­try cushions” invi­te you to sit down – and sub­se­qu­en­tly, of cour­se, to enga­ge with mathematics.

The port­fo­lio of the “Expe­rien­ce Mathe­ma­tics” is final­ly roun­ded off by a regu­lar lec­tu­re pro­gram. On the one hand, the ope­ra­tor offers indi­vi­du­al tours that are tailo­red to the wishes of the inte­re­sted par­ties and varied the­ma­ti­cal­ly. On the other hand, pre­sen­ta­tions by local spe­akers on a wide varie­ty of topics in the histo­ry of mathe­ma­tics, tech­no­lo­gy, eco­no­mics, music and natu­ral scien­ces are held regu­lar­ly on a quar­ter­ly basis. Altho­ugh the Coro­na pan­de­mic requ­ired an inter­rup­tion of acti­vi­ties, espe­cial­ly sin­ce the insti­tu­tion focu­ses on the face-to-face for­mat, a suc­cess­ful resump­tion has been achie­ved and the respon­se from inte­re­sted par­ties seems to be incre­asing con­ti­nu­ously. In the cour­se of the five-year exi­sten­ce of the “Expe­rien­ce Mathe­ma­tics” so far, ele­ven lec­tu­res have been given and a spe­cial event has been orga­ni­zed, which took pla­ce on the occa­sion of the 450th bir­th­day of Johan­nes Kepler on June 10 and 11, 2022.2

All of the­se acti­vi­ties focus on a gene­ral edu­ca­tio­nal mis­sion for the gene­ral public, whe­re­by the pure­ly non-profit natu­re of the faci­li­ty and the inde­pen­den­ce from all offi­cial fun­ding bodies can be empha­si­zed. The “mathe­ma­tics expe­rien­ce” has also alre­ady attrac­ted a gre­at deal of inte­rest in the local media. As a pre­view of the ope­ning in 2018, an artic­le appe­ared in the Nie­de­röster­re­ichi­sche Nachrich­ten under the vivid title “Dec­la­ra­tion of love for mathematics”,3 which descri­bes the operator’s pas­sion and the facility’s objec­ti­ves in a very fit­ting way. But
the
“Mathe­ma­tics Expe­rien­ce” has been pre­sen­ted not only in the print media, but also on local tele­vi­sion, name­ly with a short con­tri­bu­tion from
“SchauTV” on Febru­ary 14, 2020 in the “schau LEBEN” section.4

As far as
“modern media” is con­cer­ned, a con­tri­bu­tion from the local pod­cast “Peters
Funk­turm”, also from 2020, is worth mentioning.5

The alre­ady men­tio­ned Kepler bir­th­day year final­ly pro­vi­ded the oppor­tu­ni­ty for further
media pre­sen­ce of the “Mathe­ma­tics Expe­rien­ce” in 2022, aga­in with a contribution
in the Lower Austrian News.6
Begun as a mathe­ma­ti­cal potpo­ur­ri of all hob­bies, from ove­rview tables on
selec­ted topics in the histo­ry of mathe­ma­tics and com­pu­ter scien­ce to historical
exhi­bits (sli­de rules and cal­cu­la­ting machi­nes), the
“Mathe­ma­tics Expe­rien­ce” has deve­lo­ped into a per­ma­nent part and an
enrich­ment of the local edu­ca­tio­nal and cul­tu­ral land­sca­pe in southern Lower Austria, which has alre­ady been shown on has aro­used gre­at inte­rest among the gene­ral public and is some­thing that no one would want to miss. It will the­re­fo­re rema­in exci­ting to fol­low the fur­ther deve­lop­ments of the “Mathe­ma­tics Expe­rien­ce” in terms of a pro­spe­ro­us awareness-raising and know­led­ge trans­fer in the histo­ry of natu­ral sciences.

—-

Fau­st­mann has some plans for the future.

„Nobo­dy has to do any cal­cu­la­tions here, and nobo­dy is being tested,” Ger­lin­de Fau­st­mann reas­su­res visi­tors. „You sho­uld just be ama­zed.” For five years, the for­mer pro­fes­sor at BRG Gröhr­mühl­gas­se has been run­ning the „Expe­rien­ce Mathe­ma­tics” museum in Bahn­gas­se as a hob­by – a pla­ce whe­re num­bers come to life. Last week, the „round” was celebrated.

From sli­de rules to pinion whe­el machi­nes to mathe­ma­ti­cal lite­ra­tu­re – in this room you can find eve­ry­thing a math love­r’s heart desi­res. Nume­ro­us hid­den puz­zles awa­it guests as soon as they enter the room. „If you look at the tiles, you have an 8x8 squ­are. Sud­den­ly the tiles are in a dif­fe­rent posi­tion – and sud­den­ly it beco­mes a 5x13 rec­tan­gle, even tho­ugh no more tiles are being used,” expla­ins the math lover. So you can find inte­re­sting mathe­ma­ti­cal deta­ils from the histo­ry of mathe­ma­tics eve­ry­whe­re, but also from modern rese­arch are­as. Ger­lin­de Fau­st­mann pro­vi­des the exhi­bits them­se­lves. „After deca­des of col­lec­ting, the­re were more and more things. I wan­ted them to be acces­si­ble to the gene­ral public – tha­t’s how it all developed.”

The „Mathe­ma­tics Expe­rien­ce” is open eve­ry Mon­day from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and eve­ry third Fri­day of the month from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The­re are lec­tu­res and work­shops three times a semester.

The „Mathe­ma­tics Expe­rien­ce” has deve­lo­ped well over the past five years – the room is now almost too small. In order to inspi­re more mathe­ma­ti­cians, Fau­st­mann is plan­ning, among other things, a book to be publi­shed for the 13th anni­ver­sa­ry cele­bra­tions. It will con­ta­in all the lec­tu­res that have been given so far.

Admis­sion is free, dona­tions will be inve­sted in new equ­ip­ment or events, says Fau­st­mann: „I hope that this room will help more people to enjoy mathe­ma­tics more – and take away visi­tors’ fear of it.”