Explore 80 Mathematics Collections - Atlas Obscura
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Dunbar, West Virginia

Hidden Figures Monument

This campus monument honors Katherine Johnson, who hand-calculated the trajectory for America’s first human spaceflight and safely land Apollo 11 on the moon.
Emporia, Kansas

Mathellaneous

An eclectic collection of mathematical items that include puzzles, art, calculating devices, and historical reproductions.
Ireland

William Sealy Gosset Plaque

Honoring the Guinness brewer whose quest for the perfect pint led to the creation of the t-test, a cornerstone of modern statistics.
Dublin, Ireland

Broom Bridge

The graffiti that birthed modern algebra.
Carved Stone Milestones
Quintanar de la Orden, Spain

Carved Stone Milestones

These milestones have survived centuries and still mark distances although incorrectly.
Math and dessert are a match made in heaven.
mathematics

Celebrate Pi Day With These Mathematical Tales

Plus pie recipes, of course.
April White March 8, 2024
A copy of a 15th-century chart, attributed to Regiomontanus, to plot the movement of the Moon using a string attached to the chart's center.
astronomy

How One of Science's Biggest Errors Persisted for 1,500 Years

Ptolemy's compendium, later known as the Almagest, dominated Western astronomy for 15 centuries. It was also wrong, and it took the fall of an empire to fix it.
Rebecca Boyle February 28, 2024
Boston, Massachusetts

Charles River Esplanade Pi Plaque

Dedicated to the neverending mathematical constant, this plaque next to a park bench was sponsored by an anonymous benefactor.
The use of the letter x as a mathematical unknown is a relatively modern convention. Algebra has been around for a lot longer.
mathematics

Why Is 'X' Such a Big Deal?

From Twitter's rebranding to algebra, this single letter has an uncommon amount of...X factor. A historian of mathematics gets to the root of it.
Peter Schumer August 4, 2023
Leiden, Netherlands

Ludolph van Ceulen Memorial

A 14th-century church holds a unique monument to a German mathematician who dedicated his life to calculating the value of pi.
A map of West Africa features the world's roundest country (which is also the 14th most rectangular). Can you spot it? What about the eighth most rectangular?
maps

What Are the World’s Roundest and Most Rectangular Countries?

Mind-boggling as it is, they're often one and the same.
Frank Jacobs June 30, 2023
All illustrations: John Mata for Atlas Obscura
mathematics

Puzzle Monday: When Tetris Meets the Four-Color Theorem

AO Puzzles May 22, 2023
All illustrations: John Mata for Atlas Obscura
mathematics

Puzzle Monday: A Number System of Their Own

Alex Bellos May 8, 2023
Bristol, England

The St Mary Redcliffe Chaotic Pendulum

The unpredictability of this pendulum's movements has drawn visitors to this magnificent church for decades.
Gömböc statue
Budapest, Hungary

Gömböc

The largest statue of this convex, homogeneous object with just one stable and one unstable equilibrium point.
bridges

Podcast: Harvard Bridge Smoots

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Podcast Team July 8, 2021
Behold Martin Lersch's extremely efficient cookie cutter.
mathematics

The Satisfaction of Mathematically Efficient Christmas Cookies

If only there were a cookie-cutter solution.
Isaac Schultz December 23, 2020
Borromini's Perspective Gallery of Palazzo Spada
Rome, Italy

Borromini's Perspective Gallery of Palazzo Spada

This gallery commissioned by Cardinal Spada is known for its magnificent optical illusion.