National Museum of Mathematics

Visualize math /​/​Interactive
Small & Manageable
Have you ever rode a bike with square wheels? Well, I have! And if you want to say you have then you should stop by this «petite» museum and give it a whirl!
Family friendly, great spot for a date if you’re up for geeking out.
Imagine If when you were a kid and you could visualize math in different ways. You may have ended up an engineer or at least fascinated by what you could make with numbers. Whether you’re spinning the rollerball turning a digital donut into a sphere, riding around in a boat over shapes, or walking through a multitude of puzzles this is a great little interactive museum which should not be skipped.
Bask in the sun on a park bench in Madison Square Park across the street and eat your lunch. Many of the neighborhood restaurants offer «to-​go» or you can choose to dine in.
1. Shake shack right across the street (
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2. Eataly is around the corner (
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coffee, desserts and Italian fare, pretty busy can be noisy. Lots of things to look at.
3. Vegan’s will like Terri on 23^rd street just a few blocks away. Click the link for their menu.
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4. Lukes Lobster (
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The Scene: Family Friendly, Fun, Smartie
Destination Rating: 9
Date Rating: 8
Hob Nob Potential: 2
Strong Suggestion: Take your time relax and enjoy the day!

What fun! Come in the late afternoon and it won’t be too crowded. We got to enjoy every exhibit with zero or minimal wait times. The staff are available to help but don’t bother you unless you engage them. It’s true, there is not a lot reading nearby each exhibit but it’s meant to be interactive and it’s easier to talk to the staff if you really want to know what’s going on. I think less signage is good because it allows you to think about the situation and keeps the mystery alive until you ask or figure it out yourself.
This place is two stories and can be a tight fit if filled to capacity. We came at 3pm with our tired 4 year old and she was energized by this place. Based on other reviews, we assumed 1 – 1.5 hrs would be plenty to get through everything, but time flies when you’re having fun! If it were crowded, I’d say 1 – 1.5 hrs is enough and you’d be ready to leave. But in a less crowded situation like what we experienced, it was not enough time! We got to explore each exhibit multiple times which allowed us to experiment with different assumptions to better understand the exhibit. We will definitely be back!

Aimed at younger kids and extremely hands on. We’re so mathphobic in this country that it’s great to see an institution working hard to demystify and math mathematical concepts fun.

This place is horrible! The website says it has so many things that it really doesnt. Most of the workers frown. The only thing cool there was these spinny chairs but none of the workers seemed to know what it/​most of the things were called. This place really sucked.

Imagine if a bunch of MIT math professors designed a bunch of exhibits but forgot to test whether actual kids could use them.
Many of the exhibits in the museum had overly complicated directions that nobody was actually following. Occasionally a staff member would come around and correctly demonstrate an exhibit that even the adults couldn’t make work.
The museum would be improved if they tried to convey simpler mathematical concepts with exhibits that were more child-​proof.
That being said, my son had a great time and was entertained for 2+ hours. He just didn’t learn much about math at this museum. The best age for this museum is probably 8 — 12.

First, just a suggestion to the owners: CHANGE THE NAME-​We «get» that you are trying to make math fun but… with a name like this… It’s very difficult to motivate kids to WANT to visit!
The exhibits ranged from «eh» (most of them) to «hey that’s pretty cool «(a few like the challenge to find your way through a maze making only right turns)…The price is decent and you may spend an hour in there so I guess I would recommend it. but don’t go outta your way to get there

My wife and I went to this, and quite enjoyed it. It is not mathematics in the sense that you do equations, nor is it about the history of mathematics. Instead, the exhibits here focus on creating interesting puzzles and mathematically inspired artwork and activities.
The ground floor (floor 0) had some fun activities like a tricycle with square wheels. The teens helping out with the exhibit were very friendly and did a good job explaining. There was also a game which asked to match position and velocity by running back and forth. This was fun, but I’m not sure how good a job it did at explaining the calculus concepts. Mostly you could win by stepping forward or backward, regardless of whether it was asking for position or velocity.
The basement floor (–1) had more digital demos. There was a couple neat exhibits about tessellation. My favorite of these was an exhibit where you could design a tile and they would laser cut them out of card stock for you to take home.
The swarm of robots was very pretty, but it didn’t seem to make a difference what algorithm we selected for them to run, so educationally I think it was a dud.
I really enjoyed the mechanical encryption machine. I enjoyed decrypting the example messages, but wish that the messages were an English phrase instead of an English-​sounding nonsense word.
I think this is a great museum with a lot of potential, especially if students go to it with a good tutor.

Our second grade students learned so much from this interactive experience. Thank you to the anonymous donor who afforded this opportunity for our students through donors choose.

Dropped in for Free Play and the placed was unsurprisingly mobbed, and is indeed as kid-​oriented as others mentioned, so expect only mild mental stimulation if you’re past a certain age, and expect some skeptical glances if you’re over said age and entering sans child.

This multi-​level museum is fun and an absolute exercise for your brain. There are many exhibits that you have to determine their concept in order to enjoy them fully. Great place to impress yourself or someone else on math skills — if you dare. The museum is visually stimulating and very engaging. The staff was helpful and made themselves very visible to visitors. I was a little wary of the coat room as it is not manned by anyone. You pretty much just leave your coat and hope no one took it by accident when you return. The entire facility was clean and the gift shop sells cool items that help you see numbers differently. I enjoyed my time here and plan to come again.

After reading all the reviews of MoMath, we almost didn’t go today. I’m happy to say, however, that we went and that our experience was great!
Staff: Unbelievably helpful and friendly Staff was great not only with my daughter and her friend (9-​years-​old) but also with my nerdy math questions. Alex particularly stands out as a staff member who obviously loves what he does and it shows!
Exhibits: 99% of the exhibits were in perfect, functioning condition and for the most part were fascinating. True that it would be helpful to have written explanations next to all exhibits, but I found that staff was more than happy to explain as necessary.
Pricing: $ 15 for adults and $ 9 for children is quite reasonable, especially as we spent about 2 hours at MoMath.
Overall: I suggest this museum for children 5+. Any younger than that and I think MoMath might be too confusing. I highly recommend and we’ll be returning for sure.

Took my 10 year old brother and fiancée here! Service was really bad! We had one older woman help us and all the other stations were unsupervised. There wasn’t immediate help when trying to figure out how to operate any of the machines! The kiosks were too much in detail and it wasn’t fun just reading it ourselves! There wasn’t any real service done! It’s more of a walk in and do your own thing! We enjoyed it to the max! Although I wish I didn’t pay to get it. My fiancée and I didn’t do anything but help my brother! Overall it’s a very educational trip and you should take your kids or go with your friends who enjoy interactive math!

I know it’s fun to read and write negative reviews and I am very good at trashing places and people… but in this case it is not fun to detail what a waste of time this place is.
The exhibits which are without signage… you must reference an area touch screen which covers two other exhibits… the exhibits, make only the loosest connection to mathematics and in no way inspire or direct kids to explore or consider math as a hobby or a profession.
The place is already falling apart with black duct tape holding together a few things here and there and they have raised the prices which is not indicated on their website. It is now $ 10 for children vs. the $ 0 as posted online.
The nerds they have keeping an eye on the joint struggle to explain why you should give a crap about the various exhibits. They obviously know that the place is lame as they have to tread water in it every day.
This is as bad as the Queens Hall of Science… just as flimsy and irrelevant. Last time I was there (QHOS) I asked for the manager and he went into the cash register and refunded my money WITHOUT even having a conversation with me. He already knew what I wanted and why and offered it up without argument.
The Museum Of Mathematics was created and partially funded by some dude who made an ass load of money managing a hedge-​fund and wanted to «give the gift of math» as math had done sooooo much for him.
Well, it looks like the 1% has found a new way to screw us. Stealing two hours of our lives at this museum just like they stole our 401Ks.
Thanks Buddy… see you in the Hamptons. I’ll be the one collecting cans and bottles on the beach while you’re collecting seashells and marveling at their «myriad fractal lines».

I LOVE the free mo math lectures/​talks. I find them super interesting because they tackle problems from a geeked out analytical /​dissection perspective. Outside of the talks I am not sure i would patronize the museum as a regular, but that’s just me The speakers are usually researchers and professors, and the talks are appropriate for all ages including kids. The museum itself has nice exhibitions– much more geared toward accessible academic education than esoteric concept presentations. Plus the exterior is so cool! How can you not love a pi symbol door handle?!

A nice place to visit, but a bit rough around the edges.
I stopped by with a friend on a Saturday around 3 PM or so, and we lasted until right around closing time. We visited most of the exhibits, but many of them were somewhat confusing and took a few minutes to actually understand how they worked before we could actually play around with the exhibits. I think the place could benefit with a bit more instruction, or have the instructors be more stationed with exhibits and readily willing to help. It also didn’t help that some of the exhibits were down, and, combined with the lack of instruction, made it unclear to us whether they were not running properly or we were just not understanding them at all.
It’s definitely more geared for kids at the moment, but we had an entertaining time and were appropriately challenged/​interested by a few of the exhibits. Probably a decent place to spend a few hours, but probably not a place worth a second visit from me at the moment.

Offbeat location for some interesting child centric activity. There is no doubt the activities are arranged for intellectual and physical engagement and appeal to all ages. For instance, I’ve never ridden a bike with square wheels!
The store has mind bending toys worthy of stuffing your kid’s room with and the staff seem a tad socially challenges but personal.
All in all this is a good spot to burn an hour or two if really diving deep but whatever you do try to avoid being there during a hosted party. We were nearly driven out by a group of young ones that the adult supervision was lacking on. Guess they figure they own the place when the host a party there…

This was fun for kidsmbut it could be so much more.
The exhibits are typical of those in larger science museums. The Maryland Science Center in Baltimore and COSI in Columbus are simply more complete and dynamic examples: With rotating shows and spaces that are 20 times larger. This place is more of a work in progress.
And strictly speaking, it’s not about math. It’s about how math is applied to our everyday world. Cool enough, but it does not do a great job of explaining the mathematical principals involved in, for instance, how a square wheel on a bike can roll smooth if it is rolling on an arched roadway.
My son is a math freak – loves the stuff. He would have died for a chance to test his math knowledge in a deeper way. He wants to do equations and formulas to test himself. He wants harder stuff than they offered him – and he would like detailed explanations of why the exhibits work the way they do – not simplified versions for a lug-​head like his father.
If your gonna have a math museum, make it have a lot of math.
Still, he had a good time, bought some books and a t-​shirt and got to show off a little for the nerdy staff. There is just no reason to go back which is disappointing…

I don’t like giving museums low ratings, but in this case, I feel MoMath deserves the low ratings.
Everyone else pretty much said it. It’s expensive for what you get. Many of the exhibits were broken.
Poor explanation of why certain things were math related.
I would say that this thing is more of a children’s museum with hands on activities than a proper museum.
I would have liked to see a smithsonian type layout where you can walk through the history of mathematics throughout the years and read some of the great mathematicians along with some of their achievements.
I wouldn’t recommend this museum if you’re visiting and short on time. This is one of those places you would go if you’ve exhausted all of your other options in NYC.

Wow. What a serious waste of time and money. So what if they have a bike with square tires? That’s about all that they have – two floors of nothing. Even the gift shop will leave you longing for an endless high school algebra class. Here’s one exhibit: You enter a multiplication table such as 9×10 and guess what? The number 90 lights up. Wow. Maybe there is more to it than that, but most exhibits are not explained very well if at all. Too bad that you can only multiply by 10. If the exhibit would let you multiply by 15 you would really have something because then you would have a visual way to show everyone how much money you wasted on entrance tickets. «Look! 15 X 4 = 60. That’s how much you wasted bringing your family here.»
It’s really a shame because there should be something enjoyable about math. But this museum doesn’t challenge you. You don’t walk away having learned something that you didn’t know before. You don’t feel inspired in anyway. If anything, show people practical aspects of math and how it is applied in so many ways that people don’t appreciate.
I saw a lot of kids there. Here is my suggestion: rather than waste your time on this museum, buy your kids this book and read it with them: The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger. This is a joyful fun book about math.
I’m not done yet. What brought me here was a story on CBS Sunday Morning about the museum with Mo Rocca. I don’t know if he’s smart enough to know that the museum is a waste or if as usual he said to himself «Who cares. I’ll do anything to be on TV.»

I’ll preface this review by saying that MoMath is getting three stars because I see so much potential for this place, otherwise, it would have gotten a 2.
The Math Museum is a quaint little place that from the outside looks so small that you wonder how anything other than the gift shop could fit in there. Well, there’s some more stuff.
I came here on a field trip with my school (a group of 60 or so kids), and we were all very excited! The woman who informed us of the rules also highlighted that we had entered on floor 0, and that there was a basement floor that was called –1, which I thought was so cute. Upon entering the actual museum however, let me just say that the space is so poorly used. The gift shop is at the front, there’s this huge area in the center of floor 0 where you can ride a square wheeled tricycle, and it’s so hard to move around it to get to the few things behind it. There is one staircase to get downstairs where you have 100 000 000 kids running around.
The space is so small, so crowded, and there are just all these random things that kids can do, but there is no explanation for half of them. I really would have liked it if they had given us a history of math somewhere, explained cool math concepts that kids learn in school, had a wall of famous mathematicians or something, however, I did not see any of that.
My kids had a cryptography workshop, which was AWESOME, but other than that, I felt like it was a crowded playground. Hopefully there is some improvement later on, but at the moment, I am glad I got in for free.