With its name, “IMAGINARY” hints at the fictive, the inconceivable of mathematics. Abstract mathematical formulae are brought to life.

The first exhibit is the interactive program SURFER, which allows visitors to enter formulae in a big touchscreen with a finger or a swipe movement or to creatively change given ones, to define the emanating surfaces’ colors or to rotate them, thus generating images of algebraic surfaces in an easy and self-explanatory way. You do not need to grasp the mathematical concepts involved - also math haters can have fun changing the given formulae and watching evolve beautiful figures (the solution sets of the equations) in real time.

The second exhibit presents - on another touchscreen - the interactive geometry program Cinderella. Visitors can easily and quickly create geometric constructions including fractals. Moreover, one can run physical simulations with masses, springs and fields. This also allows to rework and complement exhibits devoted to other topics. Free from the limitations of reality, you can simulate scenarios from areas as diverse as mechanics and atom physics, as well as planet movements.

About the development of the software: The project IMAGINARY was designed by the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach as an aesthetically pleasing and interactive traveling exhibition. The exhibition succeeded not only in different European countries, but also in the USA and Russia. It is supported by the Klaus Tschira foundation, among others. Besides the Mathematisches Institut Oberwolfach and the Deutsches Museum in Munich, EXPERIMINTA in Frankfurt is the only German institution that permanently exhibits the IMAGINARY programs. The EXPERIMINTA exhibits are funded by the Citoyen foundation.