Description

Our perception of nature is based on evolutionary wiring of our brain and observations we make via our senses. But, in reality, many scientific and technological advancements are based on non-intuitive rules and principles that can only be explained by the ultimate abstraction that is embedded in mathematics. In this talk, I will discuss the concept of curvature and argue how it explains the “unexplainable”. We will see how the curvature proves that the earth is rotating, how good the soap bubbles are at proving profound mathematical results, and if the two dimensional residents can determine the shape of their world . Get ready to see some interesting applications of the curvature in engineering, medical sciences and even architecture.

Presenter Bio

Vehbi Emrah Paksoy has a B.S. from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey, an M.S. from Bilkent University, Turkey, and a Ph.D. from Brandeis University. He is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Nova Southeastern University. His research interests include algebraic and differential geometry, multi-linear algebra.

Date of Event

December 2, 2015 12:00-1:00 PM

Location

Mailman-Hollywood Auditorium

NSU News Release Link

http://cnso.nova.edu/news/articles/nsu-college-of-natural-sciences-and-oceanography--curvature.html

Included in

Mathematics Commons

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Dec 2nd, 12:00 PM Dec 2nd, 1:00 PM

CURVATURE: A geometric villain that ruins our instinctive perception of nature

Mailman-Hollywood Auditorium

Our perception of nature is based on evolutionary wiring of our brain and observations we make via our senses. But, in reality, many scientific and technological advancements are based on non-intuitive rules and principles that can only be explained by the ultimate abstraction that is embedded in mathematics. In this talk, I will discuss the concept of curvature and argue how it explains the “unexplainable”. We will see how the curvature proves that the earth is rotating, how good the soap bubbles are at proving profound mathematical results, and if the two dimensional residents can determine the shape of their world . Get ready to see some interesting applications of the curvature in engineering, medical sciences and even architecture.

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/mathematics_colloquium/ay_2015-2016/events/5