second floor

Emma Castelnuovo Room

Optical illusions and mirrors

This room is located on the second floor of the central courtyard of the Mercader Palace. It contains the modules of mirrors, optical illusions and the man of Vitruvius.

emma castelnouvo

Who was Emma Castelnuovo?

Emma Castelnuovo (Rome, 1913-2014) was an Italian mathematician and pedagogue.
A graduate of the University of Rome in 1936, she had to take refuge from the Nazis because she was of Jewish descent.
After the war, he rejoined teaching and his contributions are fundamental for the didactics of mathematics.
His desire was to convey the creative spirit of mathematics from observation, manipulation, discovery, logical reasoning and beauty.
Emma Castelnuovo visited Catalonia on several occasions and is a reference for us.

modul_calidoscopi3535

Some modules in this room

The tables where using 4 mirrors we see all the important polyhedras.

A surprising room where geometry makes things change in size.

The three mirrors perpendicular to each other allow the pieces of chain to look correctly forming a chain of 12 links.

Leonardo da Vinci's famous illustration showing body proportions.

Segueix el recorregut marcat mirant a través d’un mirall.

Two mirrors parallel to each other four cardboard tiles. They allow you to visualize an infinite frieze of tiles on both sides

Pieces with polygons that with the help of the mirror allow to achieve the proposed images.

What is the proportion between our face and its image on the surface of the mirror?

Flat images that can only be seen correctly through a cylindrical mirror

 

Una simple caixa amb miralls que capgira les imatges

 

Six boxes with interior mirrors that allow you to see a huge variety of mosaics.

It varies the angle of the mirrors and thus creates the different polygons.

A box with four mirrors slightly tilted inside, the front image is repeatedly seen forming a large sphere. 

The three mirrors perpendicular to each other allow us to reconstruct a dodecahedron.

The mirror allows you to get multiple faces of the clown.

 

Additional resources and material