Archive for November, 2009

“Between the Folds” : Film Viewing

Posted November 2, 2009 in Announcements
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SPECIAL INVITATION TO SFSU Math Department
VIP Seating for ALL SFSU Math Majors
November 18th, 2009
SF Main Library
“BETWEEN THE FOLDS”

Math majors, please send us an e-mail by Friday, November 6, noon if you are interested in viewing the movie below in San Francisco on November 18th, 2009 at the San Francisco Main Library at 5:45p.m.. Math majors (undergrads and grads) are receiving VIP seating at the event (Thank you, Professor Federico Ardila!) . Let us know and we will reserve seats for you! For more information about the movie, please see the link provided below.

Credential students/Teachers- encourage your students to view the math inspired movie!

MAA is proud to support ITVS’s national Community Cinema screenings of the acclaimed documentary BETWEEN THE FOLDS, coming to over 50 cities across the U.S. in September 2009.Think origami is just paper planes and cranes? BETWEEN THE FOLDS introduces a determined group of theoretical scientists, mathematicians and fine artists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at hard-earned graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders. Together they reinterpret the world in paper, creating a wild mix of sensibilities towards art, science, creativity and meaning.
To find a free, local screening in your area click here.

“Between the Folds” Trailer

From asteroids to bicycles: Degree formulas for higher order linking

Posted November 2, 2009 in Announcements
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Math Department Colloquium Social
From asteroids to bicycles:
Degree formulas for higher order linking
Paul Melvin
November 4, 2009
TH 432:: 4:00p.m.
(Snacks in TH 935 at 3:30p.m.)
Paul Melvin’s title & abstract is below.
You can find (a little bit of) info at http://www.brynmawr.edu/math/people.html#melvin

Abstract:  The first asteroid, Ceres, was sighted in January of 1801,but was lost shortly afterwards in the sun’s glare.  In December of the same year, Gauss awed the scientific community by directing astronomers to Ceres’ precise location in the night sky.  His fascination with the motion of the planets, comets and asteroids continued for many decades.  In 1833, he wrote down a beautiful integral formula for the “linking number” of a pair of closed obits,which can be interpreted as the degree of a map from the 2-torus to the 2-sphere.  In the early 1950’s, John Milnor introduced a family of higher order linking numbers (the “mu-bar invariants”).  In this talk I will describe a formula for Milnor’s triple linking number as the”degree” of a map from the 3-torus to the 2-sphere; “bicycles” willcome into play along the way.  This is joint work with DeTurck, Gluck, Komendarczyk, Shonkwiler and Vela-Vick.

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