Model of a Potential Surface by Richard P. Baker, Baker #426
date: label: date made
content: 1931-1935
label: date made
content: 1925-1935
label: date made
content: ca 1906-1935
name: label: maker
content: Baker, Richard P.
notes: label: Description
content: 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)<sup>2</sup> + y<sup>2</sup>] + log [(x+1)<sup>2</sup> + y<sup>2</sup>].
label: Description
content: According to documents in the accession file, it is fact the surface associated with the function: z = log ((x-1) <sup>2</sup> + y<sup>2</sup>) + log ((x+1) <sup>2</sup> +y<sup>2</sup>) - log (x<sup>2</sup> + y<sup>2</sup>).
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: The model was lent by the Baker family for exhibition at MIT in 1939 and came to the Smithsonian in 1956.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Accession file 211257.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Frances E. Baker
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.211257.078
label: accession number
content: 211257
label: catalog number
content: 211257.078
objectType: label: Object Name
content: geometric model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plaster (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: plaster cast, bolted to base. (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: 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