Public Lecture: Artistic Mathematics: Truth & Beauty
In this talk, Henry Segerman discusses his work in Mathematical Visualization: making accurate, effective, and beautiful pictures, models, and experiences of mathematical concepts.
Speaker – Henry Segerman
Bio – Henry was due to visit Melbourne last year and give a public lecture, until Covid-19 intervened! But we are now going ahead with his lecture virtually. Henry grew up in the UK and studied at Oxford before completing his PhD at Stanford. He then had postdoc positions in Texas and here in Melbourne for three years, before moving to Oklahoma State University. Henry's research is in three-dimensional geometry and topology. He is a world leader in creating visual representations of mathematical objects via 3D printing, computer graphics, and virtual reality simulations. He has also used this to produce some remarkable mathematical artwork.
Title – Artistic Mathematics: Truth & Beauty
Abstract – In this talk, Henry Segerman discusses his work in Mathematical Visualization: making accurate, effective, and beautiful pictures, models, and experiences of mathematical concepts. Segerman discusses what it is that makes a visualization compelling, and shows many examples in the medium of 3D printing, as well as some work in virtual reality and spherical video.
Video Link – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g57L4FL2zx7BG2AfKf0ZNLZvOyRlEodG/view?usp=sharing
Unanswered Questions
- Where is the 3D printing course held?
Response - I teach it at Oklahoma State University. - Is there a reason why our world is 3 dimensional?
Response - This is really a question for physicists rather than mathematicians, but I think the answer is that we don't really know. There are some arguments that say that planetary orbits aren't stable in higher dimensional spaces, so you wouldn't get the kind of environment in which intelligent life could evolve. And therefore if there are higher dimensional physical worlds, there's nobody there to ask the question. Fewer than three dimensions might also make it difficult for complex life, because things can't be so interconnected.