Virginia Teen Spots Important Error at Boston Science Museum
According to reports, Joseph Rosenfield, a Virginian high schooler who visited the museum with his family, noticed something was off with the ratio as displayed in the “Mathemetica: A World of Numbers…and Beyond” exhibit — there were minus signs where plus signs should be.
The permanent exhibit stood in the museum for over 30 years before the errors were found; it was created by Charles and Ray Eames in the 1960s and arrived in the museum in 1981.
Rosenfield left a message at the front desk after discovering the error. His father, Scott, told Boston.com that he hadn’t even left contact information behind, so it wasn’t until his aunts contacted the museum when the teen’s family received a letter.
“You are right that the formula for the Golden Ratio is incorrect. We will be changing the – sign to a + sign on the three places it appears if we can manage to do it without damaging the original,” the museum’s exhibit content developer, Alana Parkes wrote.
“It was cool,” Rosenfield told the outlet. “At first, I wasn’t sure, I thought maybe I had it wrong, but I was excited.”
He double checked himself before leaving a comment at the museum’s front desk.
“I was just really excited that I found an error,” he said. “That doesn’t happen every day.”
Like Us on Facebook for more stories from GephardtDaily.com
