HYDE PARK — The unique expertise of funhouse operators and mathematicians came together Wednesday when the Museum of Science and Industry opened a tessellating maze of mirrors as part of the new “Numbers in Nature” exhibit.
The new permanent exhibit at the museum, 5700 S. Lake Shore Dr., explores abstract mathematical concepts like tessellation, a repeating pattern made from interlocking geometric shapes.
“We thought, ‘Why just look at a pattern when you can go into one,’” said Senior Exhibit Developer Olivia Castellini, part of a team that spent two years developing the new exhibit.
After a brief primer on how leaves and other objects in nature can be broken down into simple repeating shapes, visitors are led into a maze of more than 50 identical mirrors that appear to extend forever in all directions.
“It’s a giant tessellation — it’s a pattern of interlocking triangles,” Castellini said, stepping into the range of a motion sensor at the end of the maze that pulled up a map showing the labyrinth is really only 1,800 square feet.
She said the motion sensors that cause examples of the mathematical patterns in snowflakes to suddenly flash into life on the mirrored walls solved an early problem designing of the maze.
Castellini said the team quickly learned from talking with the designers of the mirror mazes in the Ripley Believe It or Not museums that the mirrors would infinitely reflect any object in the maze and make it appear omnipresent and inescapable throughout the maze.
She said they also learned to stock up on glass cleaner.
The beginning of the maze is relatively easy to navigate because the mirrors are easily picked out from the open path by large smudged handprints.
It takes about 10 minutes to navigate the maze, and the warm lights from other displays on the golden ratio and other mathematical concepts leak into the mirrored hallways long before one finds the exit.
Once out of the maze, the idea of simple mathematical patterns undergirding nature’s design is extended to the human body as a screen allows visitors to see simple repeating ratios projected over their own body.
Castellini said the exhibit is the first major new exhibit at the museum on mathematics in more than a decade and a series of guides for teachers to use the exhibit with students.
The exhibit replaces "Petroleum Planet," an interactive display on the numerous uses of the substance.
The exhibit is included with the price of general admission.
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