My visit to the Mathematikum in Giessen/Germany

On a recent trip to Germany, I visited the Mathematikum  in Giessen.  It became a day’s trip from Frankfurt, since we were invited for lunch by some friends.

On a beautiful, sunny day, we drove on the Autobahn toward Kassel.  The countryside is very pretty during the spring season, with yellow rapefields among the lush green.  After having a delicious lunch with “Kaffee und Kuchen” at the end we arrived at the Mathematikum. 

It is a museum solely dedicated to make math hands-on. 

Going from room to room I felt like in kinder garden again because every activity represented another challenge which can be difficult even for adults.  We “played” with balls, squares, triangles and all kinds of other shapes.

There was a whole room dedicated to the Golden ratio of phi and the Fibonacci sequences.  A Roman mathematician named Fibonacci discovered in the 13^th century the sequence of numbers where the subsequent number is the sum of the previous two (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 …). 

This is not only found in math, but rather all over creation in form of flower petals; or spirals and forms like pine cones, sea shells, animal horns and even in weather patterns like tornadoes and hurricanes.

The Fibonacci sequence is closely related to the Golden number (ratio) and is found in the curves of architecture and art.  Even the human body shows this harmony in the proportions of the body parts.  I believe that this is the signature of the creator God who expressed himself in nature through law, order and beauty.

We spend a couple of hours in this magic place and a wonderful sharing on the way home.  Each of us was inspired by human ingenuity and the Divine expression.