Object Details
maker
Baker, Richard P.
Description
This string model was constructed by Richard P. Baker, possibly before 1905 when he joined the mathematics faculty at the University of Iowa. Baker believed that models were essential for the teaching of many parts of mathematics and physics, and over one hundred of his models are in the museum collections. Baker mentioned the model in a 1905 listing of one hundred models he had constructed as well as in a 1931 catalog.
A typed paper label on the top of the wooden base of this model reads: No. 75 (/) CUBICAL HYPERBOLIC PARABOLA.
Like several other models Baker made, this shows ruled surfaces, also called scrolls. Such a surface is swept out by a moving line. This model shows portions of a parabolic cylinder (going crosswise) and a hyperbolic cylinder (with two opposite sections, extending vertically). One asymptotic plane of the hyperbolic cylinder is parallel to what Sommerville calls the axial plane of the parabolic cylinder. The cylinders intersect in two curves which are represented by wires in the model. These wires are part of a cubical hyperbolic parabola.
The model sold for $5.00.
References:
R. P. Baker, A List of Mathematical Models, [1905], p. 13.
R. P. Baker, Mathematical Models, Iowa City, Iowa, 1931, p. 72. R. P. Baker Papers, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
George Salmon, A Treatise on the Analytic Geometry of Three Dimensions, Dublin: Hodges, Foster, and Company, 1874, esp. pp. 303-313.
D. M. Y. Sommerville, Analytical Geometry of Three Dimensions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959, esp. pp. 294-297.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Frances E. Baker
date made
ca 1900-1935
ID Number
MA.211257.004
accession number
211257
catalog number
211257.004
Object Name
geometric model
Physical Description
thread (overall material)
wood (overall material)
metal (overall material)
yellow (overall color)
black (overall color)
red (overall color)
copper (overall color)
screwed and threaded. (overall production method/technique)
Measurements
average spatial: 27.8 cm x 25.7 cm x 26 cm; 10 15/16 in x 10 1/8 in x 10 1/4 in
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1079702