Welcome back, faithful Math/Stats Colloquium-goers!
Our regular schedule resumes with the renowned Carolyn Gordon (Dartmouth College) explaining why “You can’t hear the shape of a drum”. In spectroscopy, one attempts to recover the chemical composition of, say, a star from the characteristic frequencies of emitted light. Analogously, Mark Kac’s question “Can one hear the shape of a drum?” asks whether the shape of a vibrating membrane (a drumhead) can be determined from its characteristic frequencies of vibrations (its fundamental tone and overtones). We will answer this question in the negative by constructing explicit examples of exotic shaped “soundalike” drums. We will also listen to a simulation of their sound, developed by Dennis DeTurck of the University of Pennsylvania.
Background: A first course in linear algebra will be helpful, but is not necessary.
- Date: Wed Mar 09
- Time: 3-3:50pm
- Room: MH320
- Snacks: 2:30pm in MH331B
For more information, click here to see the full flyer, suitable for printing and posting.
Hope to see you there!
Upcoming events:
- Wed Mar 16: Dashiell Fryer, SJSU
“Instability in Simple Decision Schemes” - Wed Mar 23: NO COLLOQUIUM (department meeting)