Flyer of the talk Frequently Asked Questions Cover page of talk

Mathematics is Beautiful! Mathematics is Useful! A joint exploration with GW undergraduates Yongwu Rong The George Washington University Friday, April 10, 2009, 1 - 2 pm MPA, Room 309 (Come 15 min earlier for refreshments, leave 15 min late for hands on activities.) During different stages of my life, I have had various views of mathematics: Mathematics is boring, but I can do it (elementary school), Mathematics is fun, but is often hard (middle school), Applied math is useful, pure math useless (college student), Pure math is beautiful, applied math ugly (graduate student), Mathematics is beautiful, mathematics is useful (college professor). This talk will be a joint exploration of mathematics through the beauty of polyhedra, knots, tiling, Poincare's dodecahedral space, as well as their applications in biology, computer graphics, cosmology, engineering, and more. This is an opportunity to appreciate some latest mathematical developments in the 21^st century that you can compare against the 17^th century mathematics in your calculus course. About the speaker: Yongwu Rong grew up in a rural area near Yangtze River in China. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from University of Science and Technology of China, and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics at the George Washington University. Dr. Rong has visited a number of institutions including Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has also served as a program director in the National Science Foundation, and as Associate Dean for Research in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences at GWU. About the background and pictures. Can you draw a 1-dimensional curve that covers a two dimensional square, or even fills a 3-dimensional cube? The answer is Yes! Such examples, discovered by Peano, can be obtained by taking limits of curves that contain a lot of zig-zags. An example of such a zig-zag curve is shown in the background. Each picture below has a mathematical story. Some will be covered in the talk. Questions? Contact Yongwu Rong (rong@gwu.edu) or Abby Knop (GW student, abbyk@gwmail.gwu.edu). Check http://home.gwu.edu/~rong/cover.pps for page 1 of the talk. The Water Cube Voronoi diagram Math@Kogan Pl M.C. Escher Conformal image of brain A 3-fold symmetry Frequently Asked Questions (still to be updated): Is the talk going to be hard? Who should come to your talk? This is supposed to be a fun talk that is accessible to anyone who can understand English. Undergraduate students in any major, graduate students, faculty and other administrative staff are all welcome. Why did you decide to give such a talk? Several factors led to the talk. First, while I was an undergraduate in college, I was inspired by many exciting public lectures by some well-respected professors (e.g. Professor Fang Lizhi in astrophysics). These talks covered a wide range of topics in mathematics, science, society, democracy (which was the hottest topic then). This was during the time when China just opened its door and a generation of young people were eager to learn fresh ideas. It was truly exciting! Now that I am a college professor. Perhaps I could do something like that for the next generation, this time in America. Now, there is no way I could ever be close to those superstars that I talked about. But at least we could have some fun together. Second, I was encouraged by students in my calculus class. During Fall 2007, students in my Math 32 convinced me to allow an index card for exams as there are a lot of formulas in this course (warning to students: don't get the impression that I am an easy teacher. Ask those who took my courses and you'll know how challenging they are). They did a good job making nice looking index cards that looked really pretty to me. So I promised them that I would make some art work out of it. Well, this did not go anywhere (sorry!). But it did motivate me to explore the beauty of mathematics with my students. Third, and I think this is very important for America (sorry if I sound like a politician). We need more mathematics awareness in the general public. April is the Mathematics Awareness Week. See http://www.mathaware.org. I remember my mom, who never went to school, could do complicated multiplications when she went to grocery, and so did many others of her generation. Nowadays, some college students rely on calculator for simple problems like 60 divided by 5.  Imaging a journalist who does not understand statistical data on newspaper, a lawyer who does not know the difference between "A implies B" and "B implies A," a future president of US who tells kids that he hated and never took math in college. This would be not only sad, but also dangerous for America. This also explains why I welcome students in ALL majors to come to my talk. The timing is bad for me as I have to go home for Good Friday. Can you talk at a different time? Several students have told me they have to go home for Good Friday or Passover. I apologize for picking a bad date (well, I should say it's a good day since it is Good Friday). It was based on feedbacks from some of my Math 32 (Fall 2007) students. I also apologize to those who have a class with a conflicting time. On the other hand, some students did ask me to talk again at a future time. If there are enough interests, I will keep that in mind for future semesters/years. Are you going to cover everything as advertised in the flyer? Out of the pictures in the flyer, I will talk about an interesting story on the Water Cube which involves mathematics, material science, and biological cells; I will also briefly talk about the art work at Kogan Plaza. Other topics include knots, polyhedra, and shape of our space. I would love to talk about Voronoi diagrams which have very interesting mathematics as well as applications in astronomy, biology, anthropology, geography, marketing, political science etc. But it looks like we will not have enough time for that this time. Here are some talks I have given or will give in this line. 1. Some Applications of Pure Mathematics, GWU MATHEMATICS GRADUATE STUDENT SEMINAR, January 2008. http://www.gwu.edu/~mathgss/Spring2008.htm 2. Mathematics is Beautiful, Mathematics is Useful! - A joint exploration with GW undergraduates, April 2009. See flyer of the talk, and page 1 of the talk. 3. Hopefully more to come… Let me know if you see an interest for a talk with a specific topic. Back to the website of Yongwu Rong