Parabola Slide
in the Mathematics & Informatics Building
The parabola slide is an architectural highlight on the Garching Campus. Both slides sweep down from a height of 13 meters, ending in the pedestrian level of the Magistrale, which forms the heart of the building housing the Departments of Mathematics and Informatics. This public artwork is the result of a competition won by the artist team Brunner / Ritz from Munich. The parabola slide was officially opened on 10th December 2002.
Sliding is very popular. Some of the first and most prominent guests to take a speedy trip from the top floor include the former Prime Minister of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber and TUM President Wolfgang A. Hermann. Since then, thousands of students, staff and visitors have enjoyed a breathtaking slide.
The slides are suitable for children aged 11 and over.
Mathematical background
The tubes of the parabola slide are built based on the formula
\[z = y = \frac{h}{d^2}\cdot x^2\]
In this formula, h is the height from the ground floor to the entrance of the slides on the third floor and 2d the distance between the two entrances. The x-y-level is the pedestrian level, whereby the x-axis points along the atrium. The z-axis points vertically upwards, and the source lies in the vertex of the parabola.
with kind permission of Walter Goll of the Frankenlandschule (in German only)
Die Rutschbahn (genauer: ihre Mittellinie) ist eine Kurve im Raum mit den kartesischen Koordinaten x, y, z.
- Schätzen Sie die Größe der Konstanten d und h. Wie sind Sie auf Ihre Schätzwerte gekommen?
- Welche Koordinaten haben der Anfang und das Ende der Rutschbahn?
- Im Foto sind d (= halbe Gesamtlänge) und h (= Gesamthöhe) eingezeichnet. Wie groß ist die Gesamtbreite?
- Bestimmen Sie die Gleichung vom Grundriss (= Projektion in x-y-Ebene) der Rutschbahn.
- Bestimmen Sie die Gleichung vom Aufriss (= Projektion in x-z-Ebene) der Rutschbahn.
- Bestimmen Sie die Gleichung vom Seitenriss (= Projektion in y-z-Ebene) der Rutschbahn.
- Auf dem Foto und aus 6. ist ersichtlich: die Rutschbahn ist eben (sie liegt in einer Ebene). Bestimmen Sie die Gleichung der Rutschbahn in dieser Ebene.
Installation of the parabola slide
To ensure that the slide from the third floor meets all the requirements of German building and safety regulations, Salzgitter AG manufactured 12 mm thick, curved steel pipes of 1 meter in diameter, which pass one another at the vertex. The installation, sanding down and coating of the raw metal tubes required a great amount of intelligent engineering work.
More on the selection of the artists
The competition to create a work of art for the mathematics and informatics building was open only to a selected group of young artists. Eight of these entered models into the competition. The jury for judging the entries comprised: a professor and a student representative from each of the former Departments of Mathematics and Informatics, and five art critics. The head of the jury was Anne Erfle.