Termcard for Hilary Term 2002

Tuesday 1^st Week
Dr. Richard Steinberg (Cambridge)
“Combinatorial Auctions”
In a combinatorial auction, bids are permitted not only on individual items, but on groups of items as well. Recently, the American government attempted to design a combinatorial auction. Why they should want to do this, and what actually happened, is the subject of this talk.

Tuesday 2^nd Week
Prof. Singmaster (S.B.U.)
“New Results on Old Problems in Recreational Mathematics”
In looking at old recreational problems, several unsolved questions had been found and have been subsequently solved. These include river-crossing problems, sharing barrels, bear-hunting problems, nets of the dodecahedron and a number of diophantine problems.

Tuesday 3^rd Week
Dr. Robin Wilson (Open University & Keble)
“Here’s Looking at Euclid”
A talk on the history and content of Euclid’s Elements.

Tuesday 4^th Week
Invariant Annual Dinner
This will be held in the dining hall at St. Hilda’s College, starting at 7 pm. Tickets can be obtained at Invariant meetings.

Tuesday 5^th Week
Colin Jack
“Popular Mathematics – a Contradiction in Terms?”
This meeting will be followed by our AGM.

Tuesday 6^th Week
Dr. Irene Ault (St. Hilda’s)
Sausages, Space-fillers and Self-similar Curves
This talk will address the use of Contraction Mapping Theorem in an appropriate setting to construct interesting curves, such as continuous maps of [0,1] onto the unit square.

Tuesday 7^th Week
Prof. Vaughan-Lee (Christ Church)
“The Mathematics of Rubik’s Cube”
Rubik’s Cube is a beautiful example of group theory in action. This will be illustrated in the talk. Bring a cube along, if you have one.

Tuesday 8^th Week
Members Papers
This is our members’ chance to take to the stage. If you would like to speak, please contact the secretary beforehand. This event will be held in the Higman room.