Featured Speakers
Eli Maor
The Pythagorean Theorem: a 4,000-Year History
By any measure, the Pythagorean theorem is the most famous theorem in all of mathematics, remembered by even the most math-phobic student from his or her high school geometry class. Well over 400 proofs are known to exist, including one by a twelve-year old Einstein, another by a young blind girl, one by Leonardo da Vinci, and yet another by a future president of the United States.
Although attributed to Pythagoras, the theorem was known to the Babylonians over a thousand years before him. He may have been the first to prove it, but his proof - if indeed he had one - is lost to us. Euclid immortalized it as Proposition 47 in his Elements, and it was from there that generations of students have come to know it. The theorem is central to almost every branch of science, pure or applied; it has even been proposed as a means to communicate with extraterrestrial beings, if and when we discover them. And, expanded to four-dimensional spacetime, it plays a pivotal role in Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Cameron Wake
Dr. Wake will be speaking about climate change.
Paul Nahin
Random Walking Through a Chancy World
We all live in a world driven by chance. Probability lurks behind many of the important events in our lives, from the people we meet (of which one, or perhaps more, later become a spouse), to the question of do we take the 8:05 flight to Los Angeles (that gets there) or the 12:40 one (that …?)? Analyzing probability questions analytically can be challenging and, even for the most brilliant of theoreticians, there will always be some problem that will be too difficult to solve analytically in the traditional sense. An alternative approach, for those problems that describe well-defined physical processes, is to simulate them on a computer. This talk will present several illustrations of that approach – called the Monte Carlo method – an approach discussed in the speaker’s two earlier books Duelling Idiots (2000, 2002) and Digital Dice (2008), both by Princeton University Press. New problems from his new book Mrs. Perkins’ Electric Quilt (to be published by Princeton in 2009), all based on random walks, will be presented. The examples discussed will range from a hiker’s actual random walk, to gambling theory, to the flight of mosquitoes from a breeding pool, to how to ‘solve’ electrical resistor circuits (without using any electrical physics) using only random numbers.
Roderick Russell
One of only 50 living sword swallowers in the entire world, Roderick Russell has been described as strangely sophisticated, successfully blending suggestion and psychology with his own personal mind-over-body techniques to present a show that bravely pushes the limits of the possible - both physically and mentally. Presenting the most dangerous and bizarre feats with wit, charm and style, Roderick also deftly navigates deep into the minds of the audience to create the most personal and profound type of theater experience. Call him a sword swallower. Call him a mentalist. ABC News calls him a "rare find." National Public Radio says that it’s "not only the oddest event of the month, but probably the weirdest of the rest of the year." A bold, risky show - but what else would you expect from a sword swallower?
"The Real Deal!"
-Maxim Magazine
"A very fine-tuned performance! You have pushed our program in new directions."
-Aimee Petrin, Programming Manager
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
"One of the world's most bizarre and unusual people"
-Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
"A bizarre encounter with a man who literally has a taste for the blade. A rare find!"
-Chronicle
"Roderick delivers powerful entertainment in the fullest sense."
Robert E. Neale, Author
Magic and Meaning
