Those are both from the Mathematica exhibit by Charles and Ray Eames, which began in California; it was later moved to New York. Duplicates were made for Chicago (the one you saw) and the 1964 World's Fair; the Chicago one moved to Boston and the World's Fair one went to Seattle, and is now in Atlanta. On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 21:17, Robert Baillie <rjbaillie@frii.com> wrote:
i remember several exhibits at the museum of science and industry in chicago from my high school days.
one had ping pong balls (or marbles?) falling down through a grid of pegs that caused the paths to become random. at the bottom, a bell-shaped curve gradually formed as more and more balls collected there.
another popular display was wire frames dipped into a soap solution. these formed either 3-d minimal surfaces or steiner trees.
bob
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