Two stops from Takebashi on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line, get off at Iidabashi—near Tokyo University of Science's Kagurazaka campus Museum of Modern Science, B1, a "Math Experience Museum"＝photo top has opened where you experience mathematical theory with all five senses. Free admission—I want to go. Director is mathematician Jin Akiyama＝photo bottom. Goals include boosting student motivation and teaching, developing teaching tools to explain abstract math concepts, and sharing them inside and outside the university. Three areas: "Math Experience Plaza," "Math Workshop," and "Math Lesson Archives." The Plaza permanently displays 100 hands-on works covering concepts from elementary through university. The Workshop produces mathematical works and tools for classroom use. Archives lets you study accumulated lectures on large displays and audio.
Hours: 12:00–16:00 (Sat 10:00–16:00). Address: B1, Museum of Modern Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku. Closed Sun, Mon, holidays, and university breaks.
Approachable math recalls the film and novel "The Professor and His Beloved Equation" from 7–9 years ago. "Beautiful numbers" from that film may still be a buzzword.
Ogawa Yoko's Akutagawa Prize winner won the first Japan Booksellers' Award in 2004; the January 2006 film was a hit—many may remember.
——A worn note pinned to the professor's sleeve read: my memory lasts only 80 minutes. To the professor who lost his memory, I was always a "new" housekeeper. On our "first meeting" he asked my shoe size and birthday. Numbers were his language. When my ten-year-old son joined us, awkward days filled with surprise and joy. A miraculously sad and warm love story. (From "BOOK" database.)
The original is from "my" viewpoint; the film has the son, now a 29-year-old middle-school math teacher, recall the professor in class. Director/screenwriter Takashi Koizumi; Professor: Koji Yakusho; housekeeper Kyoko: Eri Fukatsu; son Root: Tosei Saito; adult Root/teacher: Hidetaka Yoshioka. The professor hears Kyoko's birthday is February 20 and shows 284 on the back of his commemorative watch—220 and 284 are "amicable numbers."
Amicable numbers were known to the Pythagoreans; I learned them from this film. Pairs of distinct natural numbers whose proper divisors sum to each other. 220 and 284 are the smallest pair. Proper divisors of 220: 1,2,4,5,10,11,20,22,44,55,110 sum to 284; of 284: 1,2,4,71,142 sum to 220. Next pairs: 1184 & 1210, then 2620 & 2924. Similar: betrothed, sociable, perfect numbers—all beautiful mysterious numbers.