Fall 2004 Schedule
To Infinity... And Beyond! (Literally!) (Thursday, September 23)Speaker: Casey Leonetti
Say you've got an infinite number of quarters in a jar - a really big jar. Then you decide to toss another quarter into the jar. How many quarters do you have now? What do you get when you add one to infinity? How about adding infinity to infinity? Can one infinity be larger than another? What does infinity mean, anyway? Join math graduate student Casey Leonetti at this week's Undergraduate Seminar in Mathematics and learn everything you've always wanted to know about infinity, but were afraid to ask!
Magic Squares and Magic Stars (Literally!)
(Thursday, September
30)Speaker: Dan Biebighauser
A magic square is a square array of numbers consisting of the distinct positive integers 1, 2, ..., n^2 arranged such that the sum of the n numbers in any horizontal, vertical, or main diagonal line is always the same number. In this talk, we will discuss some ways to construct magic squares. Also, we will discuss issues related to counting magic squares and related objects called magic stars. (What are magic stars? Come to the talk to find out!)
Is Our Space Flat or Curved? (Literally!) (Thursday,
October 7)Speaker: Yuliya Babenko
Most of us are familiar with the term geometry. The only real difference between one person and another's opinion of geometry is the connotation of the word. It may be interesting to know that, for someone whose knowledge of geometry comes only from the course they took in high school, what they learned to be a straight line is curved in other types of geometry. These types of geometry are called non-Euclidean because they do not follow the rules that were concretely established in Euclid's Elements. Join Yuliya Babenko to discover worlds with new geometries, where curves are straight lines and where the sum of angles in a triangle is not equal to 180 degrees, and learn why we should care about these creations of the human mind and how they help to explain our universe.
Speaker: Professor Pete Casazza, University of Missouri
This is a collection of exciting, surprising, even amazing, consequences in the real world of elementary mathematics. Most of the talk can be enjoyed by anyone who has taken a college algebra course although the end will involve some notions from Calculus. The talk will include demonstrations.
Speaker: Distinguished Professor Emeritus Peter Hilton, SUNY of Binghamton, Mathematical Sciences Department
Special Room and Time: 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM, Stevenson Center 4309
The speaker will describe the nature of the work done working on the German Enigma
and Geheimschreiber codes in WWII. He will reminisce about his experiences, paying
particular attention to the character, personality and genius of the intellectual
leader of the group, Alan Turing.Refreshments preceding talk in the third floor foyer of the math department.
Speaker: Les Carter
Do you want to know how to send super-secret messages to your closest friends? Probably not, but nevertheless, this talk will teach you how to do so. We will give a very basic introduction to coding theory, including a discussion of the fundamental goal of coding theory. Also, we'll give you a way to impress your friends with an easy math trick.
Electoral College Mathematics (Thursday, October 28)Speaker: Professor Paul Edelman
As the election approaches, the speculation begins, once again, about the effect the electoral college will have on the outcome. Does the electoral college benefit small states? Big states? No state at all? How would you quantify such a benefit? And what sort of degree can you get from the electoral college, anyway? These questions (well, not the last one) are all subject to a mathematical analysis which I will discuss in this talk. Come hear the mysteries of the electoral college revealed.
The drunkard's walk in mathematics and physics
(Thursday, November 4)Speaker: Peter Hinow
Suppose somebody completely different than ourselves is not so sober anymore and moves along a street in the following fashion. At every street lamp he moves to the left or to the right with equal probability 1/2. Where is this person most likely to end up after n steps? We will establish the connection with the so called diffusion equation, one of the most important partial differential equations in mathematical physics. If time permits we will also address the question of recurrence of the random walk in different dimensions. A celebrated result by the Hungarian mathematician George P\'olya (1921) states that we will return with probability 1 to our starting point only in dimensions no greater than 2.
Phi = 1.61803399... (Thursday,
November 11)Speaker: Fumiko Futamura
I love the ocean. This shell is so pretty! Why is this shell soooo pretty? Why are dolphins soooo pretty? And speaking of pretty, what makes George Clooney soooo good-looking? What does that have to do with the beating of my heart? And the hurricane that's headed my way? Does it have anything to do with what happens when I flush the toilet? What then does that have to do with my oh-so perfectly formed ear, and the flight path of that diving falcon? Could it possibly allow me to predict the highs and lows of the stock market, and, and, even allow me to know when spinning Kerr black holes transition from one state to the other? Is it just coincidence that it seems as though the universe is shaped like a dodecahedron? Is life, in fact, programmable? Come hear Fumiko Futamura ramble on about phi, a.k.a. the golden ratio.
Mandelbrot and Julia Sets
(Thursday, December 2)Speaker: Bernd Grave
Do you want to know how these pictures arise? As we explain how, you will learn a little about complex numbers. Explore the webpage of David E. Joyce and create more pictures yourself.
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dan.biebighauser@vanderbilt.edu
Last Updated
January 10, 2005