Termcard for Trinity Term 2002

Tuesday 1^st Week
Dr. Wilson Sutherland (New College)
“Fixed Points”
Starting with a result about fixed points known to all fresher mathematicians, we’ll look at various kinds of results about fixed points in mathematics, and their uses.

Tuesday 2^nd Week
Dr. Graham Nelson (St. Anne’s)
“A Rainbow in the Physical Review of the Blind Men: Beauty in Feynman’s Mathematics”
Somebody once said that the reason the Velvet Underground were so influential was that, although hardly anyone heard them, everyone who did started their own band. Feynman’s celebrated course of Lectures on Physics (1962-3) had, and have, a similar cult status: a personal view on the whole of mathematical physics, transcribed from tape recordings. His ideas have become influential in pure mathematics, too, but this is really a talk about aesthetics: what makes an idea beautiful? Which comes first, the equation, the solution or the substance it describes?

Tuesday 3^rd Week
Prof. Dominic Welsh (Merton)
“How Difficult is Counting?”
Professor Welsh will present an overview of the complexity of counting and how it relates to the classic NP=P problem. He will also present some easily understandable open problems.

Tuesday 4^th Week
Dr. Michael A. Morgan (Seattle University, US)
“Adiabatic Classical Mechanics and the Motion of the Levitron”
The motion of a spinning magnetic top in a constant magnetic field.

Tuesday 5^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.

Other events we hope will take place this term include:

• A croquet match against the Cambridge Mathematics Society, The Archimedians
• A visit to the grounds of Blenheim Palace
• A punting party.

The details of these events are still being finalised. We will send information on the mailing list (and on here) as soon as anything is confirmed. If you are not on our mailing list and wish to be so then please email us and you will be added.