Model of a Potential Surface by Richard P. Baker, Baker #426

Object Details

Baker, Richard P.

Description

This model is one of several hundred designed by Richard P. Baker, a mathematics faculty member at the University of Iowa. It has a black wooden base with a plaster surface atop it. The sides of the plaster are painted black, the top is white. A typed paper tag attached to the sides reads at least in part: 426 (/) Potential surface z = (/) [log (x-1)² + y²] + log [(x+1)² + y²].

According to documents in the accession file, it is fact the surface associated with the function: z = log ((x-1) ² + y²) + log ((x+1) ² +y²) - log (x² + y²).

Baker apparently made the model late in his career – it is not listed in the 1931 printed version of his catalog, but an annotation of the copy of the catalog in the accession file for the Baker collection lists it on p. 19 as a model for mathematical physics. Other annotations give the full equation represented.

The model was lent by the Baker family for exhibition at MIT in 1939 and came to the Smithsonian in 1956.

Reference:

Accession file 211257.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Gift of Frances E. Baker

1931-1935

1925-1935

ca 1906-1935

ID Number

MA.211257.078

accession number

211257

catalog number

211257.078

Object Name

geometric model

Physical Description

plaster (overall material)

wood (overall material)

white (overall color)

black (overall color)

plaster cast, bolted to base. (overall production method/technique)

Measurements

average spatial: 8.4 cm x 14.3 cm x 14.3 cm; 3 5/16 in x 5 5/8 in x 5 5/8 in

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Mathematics

Science & Mathematics

National Museum of American History

Subject

Mathematics

Record ID

nmah_1086173

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-577e-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa