This piano, now (and still used) at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences in Toronto, belonged to famed geometer H.S.M. "Donald" Coxeter (1907-2003). The piano was given by Coxeter's father to his mother at the time of Coxeter's birth and remained with him for his entire life. He composed music in his youth and was an accomplished pianist by age 10.
The piano stands beneath a magnificent spiral staircase at the Fields Institute.
The physics of sound production in organ pipes to generate musical tones leads to a distribution of pipes of various sizes, which can be arranged into aesthetically pleasing arrays. Wicks Organ, Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church, Johnson City, Tennessee, 2008.
The letters of the word "stop," painted near a street corner, are stretched vertically so that the sign would appear "normal" from a driver's viewpoint.
Eltaninby Bathsheba L. Grossman, Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The sculpture has the symmetry of a chiralized tetrahedron.
Geometrical structure consisting of four intersecting hexagonal tubes, created from 148 pencils by members of workshops at the American Institute of Mathematics.
This pencil structure (left) is a variant of the 72 Pencils sculpture created by George W. Hart.
Instructions for creating a geometric structure from 72 pencils.
More from the American Institute of Mathematics at "AIM Mural."
Ivars Peterson is a freelance writer and editor. He was Director of Publications at the Mathematical Association of America from 2007 to 2014. As an award-winning mathematics writer, he previously worked at Science News for more than 25 years and served as editor of Science News Online and Science News for Kids. His books include The Mathematical Tourist, Islands of Truth, Newton's Clock, and Fragments of Infinity: A Kaleidoscope of Math and Art.