Model of a Twisted Cubic by Richard P. Baker, Baker #74 (a Ruled Surface)
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900-1935
name: label: maker
content: Baker, Richard P.
notes: label: Description
content: This string model was constructed by Richard P. Baker, possibly before 1905 when he joined the mathematics faculty at the University of Iowa. Baker believed that models were essential for the teaching of many parts of mathematics and physics, and over one hundred of his models are in the museum collections. Baker mentioned the model in a 1905 listing of one hundred models he had constructed as well as in a 1931 catalog.
label: Description
content: A typed paper label on the top of the wooden base of this model reads: No. 74 (/) TWISTED CUBIC: 3 real (/) asymptotes.
label: Description
content: Like several other models Baker made, this shows ruled surfaces, also called scrolls. Such a surface is swept out by a moving line. This model shows portions of three hyperbolic cylinders, one with yellow strings, one with blue strings, and one with red strings (a hyperbolic cylinder is a surface that joins two parallel hyperbolas, just as a regular cylinder joins two parallel circles. For a model, see 1982.0795.33). The hyperbolic cylinders in this model all make an acute angle with the base. Three pieces of wire indicate places where the three hyperbolic cylinders intersect. These are part of a curve of degree three known as a twisted cubic, in this case a twisted cubic with three real asymptotes.
label: Description
content: The model sold for $7.50.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: R. P. Baker, <I>A List of Mathematical Models</I>, [1905], p. 13.
label: Description
content: R. P. Baker, <I>Mathematical Models</I>, Iowa City, Iowa, 1931, p. 72. R. P. Baker Papers, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
label: Description
content: George Salmon, <I>A Treatise on the Analytic Geometry of Three Dimensions</I>, Dublin: Hodges, Foster, and Company, 1874, esp. pp. 303-313.
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.211257.003
label: accession number
content: 211257
label: catalog number
content: 211257.003
objectType: label: Object Name
content: geometric model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: thread (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: red (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: yellow (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: screwed and threaded (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 28 cm x 26.2 cm x 25.1 cm; 11 1/32 in x 10 5/16 in x 9 7/8 in