Overview
In this seminar we discuss various topics that, although not crucial part of the core curriculum, do give mathematics its flavour and beauty. Especially for MMath students, but also for Math BSc students who are doing very well (and who may even have played with the idea of doing an MMath degree), we think it would be nice to showcase such topics. In the Autumn semester, on Thursdays 5-6pm in weeks 2-4, Thursday 4-5pm (week 5) in the Maths Common Room (39AA04), we organise talks on topics that you probably haven't seen before, but should on a level accessible to level 1 and 2 students (so no prerequisites). It is definitely not our intention to present more maths techniques with exercises, but rather to show what other imaginative things and ideas mathematicians have developed. So do expect some thinking outside the box.
No tests, courseworks or credits are attached to it; we just hope to widen your scope and sense what mathematics can be about, and maybe give you ideas for projects (such as literature review, MMath project) in the future.
Seminar Details
Schedule for Spring Semester 2012
Schedule for Autumn Semester 2011
| Day | Time | Room | Lecturer | Title/Topic | Further Information |
|---|
| Thursday October 20 (week 3) | 5-6pm | 39AA04 | Philip Aston | Mathematical Modelling of the Dynamics of a Bouncing Superball | Philip Aston and Ron Shail's paper on the bouncing ball in .pdf |
| Thursday October 27 (week 4) | 5-6pm | 39AA04 | John Rayman | Mathematical models for the spreading diseases | |
| Thursday November 3 (week 5) | 5-6pm | 39AA04 | Jon Bevan | Burnside's Theorem and Counting Colourings | More info at Wikipedia and Springer. Some notes about this lecture are here, see also Jon's webpage. |
| Thursday November 10 (week 6) | 5-6pm | 39AA04 | Mark Roberts | The three body problem | more info |
Seminars in previous years
Schedule for Spring Semester 2011
| Day | Time | Room | Lecturer | Title/Topic | Further Information |
|---|
| Thursday February 17 (week 2) | 5-6pm | 24AA04 | Gianne Derks | Can you hear the shape of a drum? | More info |
| Thursday February 24 (week 3) | 5-6pm | 40AA04 | Ian Melbourne | Knot theory | More info |
| Thursday March 3 (week 4) | 5-6pm | 40AA04 | David Lloyd | Turing machines: the mathematics of computers | More info |
| Tuesday March 8 (week 5) | 2-3pm | 39AA04 | Jon Bevan | Burnside's Theorem and Counting colourings | More info at Wikipedia and Springer. Some notes about this lecture are here, see also Jon's webpage |
| Thursday May 12 (week 10) | 5-6pm | 40AA04 | Henk Bruin | History of maths: how the world became bent | |
Schedule for Autumn Semester 2010
Schedule for Spring Semester 2010
| Day | Time | Room | Lecturer | Title/Topic | Further Information |
|---|
| Tuesday February 16 (week 2) | 1-2pm | TB01 | Jonathan Deane | The irrationality of pi squared | More info |
| Tuesday March 2 (week 4) | 1-2pm | TB01 | John Rayman | Mathematical models for the spreading diseases | More info |
| Tuesday March 16 (week 6) | 1-2pm | TB01 | Claudia Wulff | Botzmann's Dilemma: An introduction to statistical mechanics via the Kac Ring | More info |
Schedule for Autumn Semester 2009
| Day | Time | Room | Lecturer | Title/Topic | Further Information |
|---|
| Tuesday October 13 (week 2) | 11-12am | TB23 | Henk Bruin | The gamma function: What is 1/2 factorial? | More info at Wikipedia and some more Wikipedia. Also Wolfram's mathematics sites, and Stirling's formula. Rudin's book (pages 192-195) has a short and very good chapter on the Gamma-function, and a celebrated article on the function is by Davis. |
| Tuesday October 27 (week 4) | 11-12am | TB23 | Mark Roberts | The three body problem | more info |
| Tuesday November 10 (week 6) | 11-12am | TB21 | Philip Aston | Mathematical Modelling of the Dynamics of a Bouncing Superball | Philip Aston and Ron Shail's paper on the bouncing ball in .pdf |
| Tuesday November 24 (week 8) | 11-12am | TB21 | Janet Godolphin | The four/five colour theorem | The four colour theorem according to Wikipedia, and how it was used by Martin Gardner to fool the nation on a particular day. A rather amazing polyhedron (and its dual) showing that you need at least six colours to colour a map on the torus. |
| Tuesday December 8 (week 10) | 11-12am | TB23 | Ian Melbourne | On platonic solids | more info |
Schedule for Spring Semester 2009
Schedule for Autumn Semester 2008
