Undergraduate Colloquium Winter 2012
Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m. in McHenry Building - Room 4130
Refreshments served at 4:45 p.m.
For further information, please contact
Continuing Lecturer Frank Bauerle, bauerle@ucsc.edu.
January 18, 2012
Math and Music
Cameron Franc, Visiting Professor, UCSC Mathematics Department
In this talk we will discuss some connections between mathematics and music. We'll begin by recalling some facts about the human perception of sound. We will next give a mathematical explanation for why there are twelve notes in an octave in the western musical tradition. After defining the 24 major and minor triads, and will recall some material on group actions. We will then describe how the dihedral group of order 24 acts on the major and minor triads in two different and musically interesting ways. We will end our discussion by explaining how these group actions are dual in a precise mathematical sense. We will not assume any musical knowledge. We will begin from basic physical principals and explain all musical ideas and terms discussed in the talk. We will assume a slight familiarity with group theory.
January 25, 2012
Games Night
Dr. Frank Bauerle, Continuing Lecturer, UCSC Mathematics Department
Games nights are an informal get-together of people interested in playing and learning about games with depth that will happen occasionally during the year. Each night will feature a new game or a collection of games. Games can be 100% strategic (such as "Hex"), involve chance and probability (such as "The game of Pigs") or require a certain amount of games psychology (such as "For Sale"). The most interesting games usually combine some or all of the above. Some games are two-player games (such as "Quoridor") and some will be multi-player such as ("Ricochet Robots" or "Pit"). We will have fun learning and playing the games but also spend some time discussing the mathematical content of these games. Everybody is invited. Bring a friend! No prior experience or exposure to any of these games is necessary.
February 1, 2012
Games Night
Dr. Frank Bauerle, Continuing Lecturer, UCSC Mathematics Department
Games nights are an informal get-together of people interested in playing and learning about games with depth that will happen occasionally during the year. Each night will feature a new game or a collection of games. Games can be 100% strategic (such as "Hex"), involve chance and probability (such as "The game of Pigs") or require a certain amount of games psychology (such as "For Sale"). The most interesting games usually combine some or all of the above. Some games are two-player games (such as "Quoridor") and some will be multi-player such as ("Ricochet Robots" or "Pit"). We will have fun learning and playing the games but also spend some time discussing the mathematical content of these games. Everybody is invited. Bring a friend! No prior experience or exposure to any of these games is necessary.
February 8, 2012
Can you do MU?
Dr. Frank Bauerle, Continuing Lecturer, UCSC Mathematics Department
Following Douglas Hofstadter's work in "Gōdel, Escher, Bach", we will introduce and discuss the infomal formal M-I-U system. While very simple in its design, this system is surprisingly deep and fun to explore. The reason it is also useful is because it allows us to discuss properties of formal systems in general, including those that were used by Gōdel in his famous incompleteness theorems. There is no prerequisite knowledge in logic required.
February 15, 2012
Games Night
Dr. Frank Bauerle, Continuing Lecturer, UCSC Mathematics Department
Games nights are an informal get-together of people interested in playing and learning about games with depth that will happen occasionally during the year. Each night will feature a new game or a collection of games. Games can be purely strategic (such as "Hex" or "Ricochet Robots"), involve chance and probability (such as "The game of Pigs" and "Settlers of Catan") or require a certain amount of game psychology (such as "For Sale" or "Pit"). The most interesting games usually combine some or all of the above. Some games are two-player games and some will be for as many players as you can crowd around the game board. We will have fun learning and playing the games but also spend some time discussing the mathematical content of these games. Bring a friend! Bring a new game to share! No prior experience or exposure to any of these games is necessary.
February 22, 2012
Math Bots: Robots and Cyborgs in the History of Math, and its Future
Professor Ralph Abrahams, Emeritus, UCSC Mathematics Department
Early robot mathematicians in the works of Ulam, Forrester, and Sprott. Chaos, complex dynamical systems, and agent-based modeling in robotics and augmented reality. Speculations on the future of mathematics.
February 29, 2012
Life of PI: Continued Fractions and Infinite Series
Daniel Hermes, BA Mathematics and Economics
Ever wonder how π is calculated to trillions of digits? Me neither. By writing out the digits of π in decimal notation (3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 ...) one "sees" that π is truly irrational. In this talk we’ll explore a beautiful fact that makes π resemble something rational (not mathematically). In understanding the story of π we’ll see just how fun numbers can be and use continued fractions and Conway's topograph to see how brilliant people thought (and think) of numbers.
March 7, 2012
Games Night
Dr. Frank Bauerle, Continuing Lecturer, UCSC Mathematics Department
Games nights are an informal get-together of people interested in playing and learning about games with depth that will happen occasionally during the year. Each night will feature a new game or a collection of games. Games can be purely strategic (such as "Hex" or "Ricochet Robots"), involve chance and probability (such as "The game of Pigs" and "Settlers of Catan") or require a certain amount of game psychology (such as "For Sale" or "Pit"). The most interesting games usually combine some or all of the above. Some games are two-player games and some will be for as many players as you can crowd around the game board. We will have fun learning and playing the games but also spend some time discussing the mathematical content of these games. Bring a friend! Bring a new game to share! No prior experience or exposure to any of these games is necessary.
March 14, 2012
Movie Night - Infinite Series: Archimedes and Pi
Dr. Frank Bauerle, Continuing Lecturer, UCSC Mathematics Department
In celebration of Pi Day (on March 14th), we will be showing Infinite Secrets, a NOVA episode on Archimedes and Pi. Archimedes is the most famous of the ancient mathematicians and the first to calculate a good approximation for Pi. He wanted to find a value as close as possible to the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, and his method foreshadows modern methods in calculus. More info on the movie can be found here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/archimedes/
