Tea and stickies

Here’s a panno of the Queen’s Bottom…

We went for an early walk this morning because I was heading off for the museum at lunch time for a Christmas treat. Of course, being away for so long in the afternoon meant an extra special walk for the girls. It wasn’t such a joyful day for this little fellow, though, who seemed to be a bit stuck in a leafless tree.

Bears in trees? Possibly he was looking for honey and fell foul of the twigs. I don’t know and, to be completely honest, don’t really care that much. I was off to the museum!

It was for a special curated tour of the new Winton (Mathematics) Gallery that opened recently. The curator, David Rooney said he’d be more than happy to take us around.

The new space was designed by Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi architect who moved to London in 1972. Her work is world renowned and her love of mathematics exemplified by most of her work. Sadly she died in March this year making this her first and only museum space design. (You can read more about this amazing woman here.)

The first thing you notice when you enter is the bi-plane. This was built in 1929 in order to improve air safety. Planes prior to this were only used in the war so safety wasn’t a major concern. However, people wanted to commercialise it (naturally) and safety was suddenly a concern.

Very simply put, this biplane, called the Handley Page ‘Gugnunc’ was built using mathematical formulae relating to the air flow across the wings, providing stability, uplift and the sort of aerodynamics we’re now used to.

Either side of the plane’s wings are big, modular shapes. These represent the air as it leaves the plane. The shapes are based on the same mathematical formulae used to build the plane in the first place. The whole thing is quite breathtaking.

The whole gallery is meant to place mathematics in the world in order to show your normal everyday person who is confused and boggled by the simplest of number manipulation (I’m pointing at myself when I say that) that we couldn’t really live without maths in some way or another.

Personally, I think the gallery does that in spades. It’s a really beautiful, calm space with objects displayed in curving shapes radiating from the biplane…sort of.

Anyway, it’s far from boring and dull, two things one could easily say about the old Mathematics gallery. In fact, David told us that one of the complaints he’s received about the new gallery is the lack of portraits along the wall of famous mathematicians. David stated that, mathematically speaking, there’s really only old white men with long beards looking solemn depicted in portrait form. Hanging them either side with their disapproving glares would be a bit dismissive of the contribution made by everyone else in the world, in history and today.

After our tour we headed down to the Volunteers Green Room. While I’ve heard of this room’s existence. I have never visited. It’s for the volunteers to store their stuff and chill in. There’s even lockers.

Laid out on the tables were all sorts of Christmas delights (except there was no Stollen, as Howard and I noted with disappointment), tea and coffee. We all then stood around and chatted.

I wound up talking to a chap who started volunteering when Cosmonauts began. He’s originally from Adelaide and speaks and reads Russian fluently. Oddly, his family migrated to the UK when he was four. I’d say he’s about my age so we may have crossed on the ocean.

He introduced me to his wife, Marina who is a Russian GP and very funny. She told me some incredibly funny stories about her Ukrainian aunt who didn’t see the need for an indoor flushing toilet until she had one and the appalling state of the roads outside her house, mainly because of the tree trunks used to replace the manhole covers which have been stolen for scrap.

It was a complete cack. They were both very nice and sociable. We chatted for about an hour before we all decided it was time to leave.

The train home was awful given it was full of commuters and I had to stand up. But, instead of crowded trains, I’d rather think about more pleasant things like this incredibly detailed model of the Thames Barrier: