Tag Archives: teaching

Remembering Kelly

2 Replies

This past week I was saddened to learn of the death of mathematician and teacher David C. Kelly, the founder of the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics program (HCSSiM). “Kelly”, as everyone called him, had a huge impact not just on my career but on the careers of people spanning several generations.

I knew Kelly for nearly fifty years. At the time we met I was a high school student who’d done well enough in inter-school math competitions to earn a spot on the Nassau County team, and when I and my team-mates went to the Atlantic Regional Math League competition, Kelly was there, spreading the word about HCSSiM. I thought he looked remarkably like Kurt Vonnegut, though not everyone agreed. Judge for yourself:

Not Kurt.
Not Kelly.

The “17” in the background in the former picture is important, as you already know if you read my essay “Will ’17 Be the Year of the Pig?” And if you haven’t read that essay, and you’ve wondered why I post my blog on or around the 17th of each month … well, read that essay.

I don’t have anything to write about the summer program that I didn’t already write back in 2017, but I do want to share my two favorite Kelly stories. I’m sure I’ll get some details wrong, and alas, Kelly isn’t around to set me straight, but I think he would agree that my versions are true in spirit. (And if any of you have corrections, please post them in the Comments!)

Continue reading →

Math and the Museum

4 Replies

“I couldn’t help but wonder…” — Carrie Bradshaw (in every episode of Sex and the City)

The best birthday party I ever had as a kid was a trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York City with half a dozen like-minded friends and my indulgent parents. The huge dinosaur skeleton in the main hall was impressive, but I was even more enchanted by the exhibits at the Hayden Planetarium. How intriguing it was to see a ball roll round and round the inside of a curvy funnel, evading its fate for what seemed like an eternity before finally falling into the hole in the middle, and how fun to wonder how the rules governing our universe not only allowed but mandated this behavior! How intriguing it was to see how much I would weigh on different planets, and how fun to wonder what that would feel like!

But as much as I enjoyed the planetarium, my childhood love of science was already secondary to my passion for math – the skeleton of the universe, you might call it. I probably would’ve enjoyed a trip to a math museum even more than a trip to a natural history museum. The trouble is, New York City didn’t have one.

That’s not true anymore. New York City now boasts one of the best mathematics museums in the world, the National Museum of Mathematics, informally called MoMath. With 19,000 square feet containing over three dozen exhibits, MoMath became a major attraction to NYC-area schoolchildren and tourists from all over the world when it opened in 2012. Sometime in 2026 it’ll be moving to a new location at 635 Sixth Avenue, where it’ll occupy either 36,000 or 46,000 square feet.

The square footage depends partly on you, as I’ll explain.

Continue reading →