Location and Directions

Address

Garching Forschungszentrum (Research Campus)

Boltzmannstr. 3

85748 Garching bei München

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Business Campus München:Garching

Parkring 11/13

85748 Garching

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Locations of the Department of Mathematics

Parabola slide in the Maths & 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.

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 tubes of the parabola slide are built based on the formula

z = y = h x²/d²

In this formular,  h is the height from the ground floor to the entrance of the slides on the thrid floor and 2d the distance between the two entrances. The x-y-level is teh 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.

Can you solve our maths quiz on the parabola slide? (with kind permission of Mr Walter Goll of the Frankenlandschule)

In order for the slide from the 3rd floor to meet all the requirements of German building and safety regulations, the Salzgitter AG manufactured 12mm thick, curved steel pipes of 1 metre 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!

Here you can see a video on the installation of the parabola slide from Raimund Ritz.

The competition to create a work of art for the maths and informatics building was open only to a select 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 Departments of Mathematics and Informatics, and 5 art critics. The head of the jury was Anne Erfle.

Here you can find some pictures of the parabola slide.

Campus Garching Research Centre

The Campus Garching is the home of one of Europes largest research centres. In addition, it is the largest location of the Technical University of Munich.

News from the Department