Every summer, scores of tourists take to the bustling streets of Barcelona, a city known for its breathtaking architecture. Nicolás Atanes Santos, a young Spanish mathematician, sees this as an opportunity to engage more people in his favorite subject.
In partnership with the regional government of Catalonia, Mr. Santos created what he calls “math trails,” self-guided walking tours for visitors to explore landmarks of different Spanish cities, one math problem at a time.
Mathematics is used in architecture for both function and design. Trigonometry helps calculate angles and heights. Symmetry creates proportion and balance. Geometry brings shape and form to life.
For Mr. Santos, math can also inspire ideas about structures that have already been built — a new way to see and appreciate the world. Inspired by this idea, The New York Times created a virtual tour of some of the most striking architecture in Barcelona, a city where math and exploration meet.
Mr. Santos is an undergraduate student at the National University of Distance Education, and has studied mathematics in Burgos, Pamplona and Barcelona. His walking tours are a part of a personal mission to bring math to the streets, a response to the broad distaste he perceives for his field of study.
“People are often afraid of mathematics,” Mr. Santos said. “They remember nothing but the stress of learning things they couldn’t see practical applications for.”
Or they find it boring and mechanical, he explained, consisting only of formulas to memorize.
But for Mr. Santos, mathematics means more than that. It is something to be discovered, an international language that connects people with place.
Mr. Santos has helped create math trails for tourists who stroll the streets of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Tarragona and Tortosa. Everywhere, he said, there are “many puzzles, many problems, that are very beautiful.”
Mathematics, it seems, is anywhere you choose to find it — in architecture, but also in music, the flow of traffic and bowling.
“It’s all around us,” Mr. Santos said. “It transcends borders, countries, cultures and even eras.”
