Palais de la Découverte

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The Palais de la Découverte ("Discovery Palace") is a science museum located in the Grand Palais, in the 8th arrondissement on Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, Paris, France. It is open daily except Monday; an admission fee is charged.

The museum was created in 1937 by Jean Baptiste Perrin (awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1926) during an international exhibition on "Arts and techniques in modern life". In 1938, the French government decided to convert the facility into a new museum, which now occupies 25,000 square metres within the west wing of the Grand Palais (Palais d'Antin) built for the Exposition Universelle (1900) to designs by architect Albert-Félix-Théophile Thomas. On January 9, 1940, a new decree linked museum, this time to the University of Paris.^[1]

In 1972, decree no. 72-367 of April 28 transformed the Palais de la Découverte into an autonomous public establishment.^[2] In 1990, it received the status of large establishment following decree no. 90-99 of January 25.^[3]

In January 2010, the museum was merged with the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie under one institution named universcience with two locations.

Today the museum contains permanent exhibits for mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and biology, featuring interactive experiments with commentaries by lecturers. It includes a Zeiss planetarium with 15-metre dome.

Under renovation in the early 2020s, its activities continued at Les Étincelles,^[4] 186 rue Saint-Charles, in the 15th arrondissement.

Pi room

The museum contains a circular room known as the "pi room". On its wall is inscribed 707 digits of the number π. The digits are large wooden characters attached to the dome-like ceiling. The digits were based on an 1873 calculation by English mathematician William Shanks, which included an error in the 528th digit. The error was detected in 1946, and corrected in 1949.^[5]

Footnotes

^ Décret du 9 janvier 1940 rattachant le Palais de la découverte à l'université de Paris, JORF No. 9 du 10 janvier 1940, p. 278.
^ "Décret n°72-367 du 28 avril 1972 Attribuant La Personnalite Civile Et L'autonomie Financiere Au Palais De La Decouverte Et Relatif A Son Organisation Administrative Et Financiere". www.legifrance.gouv.fr. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
^ "Décret n°90-99 du 25 janvier 1990 portant organisation du palais de la Découverte". www.legifrance.gouv.fr (in French). Retrieved 21 June 2023.
^ "Les Étincelles - VENIR NOUS VOIR - Palais de la découverte". www.palais-decouverte.fr (in French). Retrieved 21 June 2023.
^ Posamentier, Alfred, Pi: A Biography, p. 118, Prometheus Books, 2004.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Palais de la découverte.

Universcience
Palais de la Découverte
Grand Palais description
Paris.org entry
Le Palais de la découverte : un condensé de dysfonctionnements administratifs et politiques, Rapport d'information de M. Philippe ADNOT, fait au nom de la commission des finances, n° 354 (2006–2007) – 27 juin 2007
Figaro, "Le Palais de la découverte à la dérive", 14 October 2007 (French)