In this newsletter:
* Latest news
* Mathematical moments
* Browse with Plus
* Live maths
* The Plus New Writers Competition
**********
Latest news
* Doing the time warp
Einstein proved correct, ..... again!
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec07/einstein/index.html
* $25,000 Controversy Debate surrounds $25,000 prize won by undergraduate
for solving universal Turing machine problem
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec07/turing/index.html
Plus ... more news from the world of maths in the Plus blog, including the
costs of poor maths skills, Lotto confusion and the next Beautiful Young
Minds. http://plus.maths.org/blog/
Plus ... more maths for your ears. You can find all our podcasts at:
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/index.html
Subscribe from this site, or look up Plus in iTunes.
**********
Mathematical moments
Edwin Powell Hubble
Born: 20 Nov 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri, USA
Died: 28 Sept 1953 in San Marino, California, USA
Edwin Hubble was born in Missouri in 1889. In his youth, Hubble was more of
a sportsman than mathematician, holding the Illinois State high jump record
and playing for the University of Chicago basketball team. He won a Rhodes
scholarship to Oxford where he studied law. He rose to the rank of major in
World War I, and following the war, he returned to the US and studied at
the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago. He earned a PhD in
1917 with a dissertation entitled "Photographic Investigations of Faint
Nebulae".
Hubble's work had major influences in the fields of astronomy and
mathematics. Throughout the 1920s, Hubble played a key role in establishing
the content of galaxies. It was known that some spiral nebulae contained
individual stars, but there was no consensus as to whether these were
relatively small collections of stars within our own galaxy, or whether
these could be separate galaxies. In 1924 Hubble measured the distance to
the Andromeda nebula and showed it was about a hundred thousand times as
far away as the nearest stars. It had to be a separate galaxy.
Hubble realised that he could use the apparent brightness of stars as an
indication of their distance from Earth. The speed with which a galaxy was
moving towards or away from the Earth was relatively easy to measure due to
the Doppler shift. In 1929, Hubble however deciphered that this red shift
was proportional to the distance. His work proved that galaxies are
receding from us, and one another. This led to the idea that the Universe
is expanding, and then to the concept of the Big Bang and modern cosmology.
Hubble discovered the asteroid 1373 Cincinnati on August 30, 1935. Today,
the Hubble Space Telescope bears his name in his honour.
**********
Browse with Plus
* Mobius Transformations Revealed on YouTube
Ever tried to visualise Mobius transformations? A new video, "Mobius
Transformations Revealed," attempts to break down the barriers to the
mathematical tools and has, at my last count, over 500,000 hits! That's
Plus territory!
In this video, Douglas N. Arnold and Jonathan Rogness of the University of
Minnesota in Minneapolis transform a multicolored square into new shapes
using Mobius transformations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX3VmDgiFnY
* The Calculus of Saying 'I Love You'
Why you should never date man who knows more maths than you
http://www.inklingmagazine.com/articles/the-calculus-of-saying-i-love-you?page=1
* Plus / Nature Mathematics Group
Plus has teamed up with science journal giant Nature to bring maths to the
Nature networking site.
"Nature Networks" was set up to provide a global stage for science
discussion, allowing scientists to meet, interact and comment on the latest
news, debate current topics or exchange information. The mathematics forum
is brought to you by Plus. We're aiming to provide a platform for anyone
who wants to discuss maths, whether it's actual maths, maths teaching, the
portrayal of maths in the media, or good and bad maths content elsewhere on
the internet.
The address is:
http://network.nature.com/group/mathematics
Topics have that have started to be discussed include one to introduce
yourself and one to discuss mathematics and the media. Feel free to start
up new topics and ask questions on mathematical topics, participate in
these current debates or answer the questions of others.
**********
Live maths
* Modelling Conflict
Computational science has already had an immense impact on the life
sciences. The presenters assess its effectiveness on social and political
modelling and, in particular, in thwarting terrorism.
Who: Professor Timothy Hackworth and Philip Treleaven When: 5:00pm - 7.00
pm Thursday 6th December 2007 Where: Lighthill Institute of Mathematical
Sciences, 57-58 De Morgan House, Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS How much:
Free RSVP: [log in to unmask] More info: www.ucl.ac.uk/lims
* 50 years of the Lovell telescope
A topical lecture about an icon of British science and technology as it
passes its 50th anniversary. It will also give an introduction to the art
of radio astronomy and how it enables us to observe parts of the universe
that optical telescopes cannot reach.
Who: Professor Ian Morison
When: 1pm Wednesday 5th November 2007
Venue: Staple Inn Hall, High Holborn, London, WC1V 7QJ
How much: Free
**********
The Plus New Writers Competition
Every year at Plus we hold our maths essay competition, the "Plus new
writers" award. We want to find people who can bring mathematics to life.
The competition is open to new writers of any age and from any background
who can explain a mathematical topic or application they think the world
needs to know about. The winning entries will be read by an international
audience of over two hundred thousand in the June 2008 issue of Plus, and
the winners will receive an ipod and signed copies of popular maths books
by some of the best science writers today. The closing date is March 31st
2008.
The competition is kindly supported by the Maths, Stats and Operational
Research Network, a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy, and the
London Mathematical Society. The competition will be judged by three
prominent mathematicians and science writers.
There are three categories: secondary school and sixth form students,
university students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) and the general
public.
If you think you can share your passion for maths with the general public,
download your entry pack today and get writing!
For more information and the entry pack, go to:
http://plus.maths.org/competition/
**********
Happy reading from the Plus team!
**********
If you received this message you have subscribed yourself to the
PLUS-ANNOUNCE mailing list via our website. If you do not wish to remain on
the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?SUBED1=plus-announce&A=1
and follow the instructions to leave the list.
If you have any comments on this newsletter, or Plus Magazine, please
contact us at [log in to unmask] - we are always happy to hear from our
readers!
Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might be interested.
--------------
Marc West
Plus Magazine
http://plus.maths.org
Millennium Mathematics Project, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA
Phone: +44 (0) 1223764268
email: [log in to unmask]
|