Professor Marcus de Sautoy

[Kirstie]

I think he's super cool.

Anyone watch the programme with him and Alan Davies last night all about maths? It's a rare talent for someone who is so into a loony subject like maths to be so personable and have such infectious enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, however, I still don't understand:

- why the universe is shaped like a donut
- the farm animals/car cup game and probability in general
- what the fourth dimension is

Although I did get the bit about euclid and prime numbers...but then I'm only a social scientist...

Incidentally he was also on desert island discs just before Christmas and his choices were just sublime. I'd love to meet him. What a brilliant guy.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Maybe if it looked like a Christmas pudding it wouldn't work because:

a. Christams puds aren't hollow in the middle.

b. How big would the sixpence have to be?

 

[marinyork]

I like de Sautoy personally but I think he's very mixed as a presenter, some of his mates are rather more cool. One of the parts of his story of maths series was very good but I thought the early programmes were a bit poor. Finding Moonshine was a goodish book but I thought it was overrated and rather waffly at times to say the least. It's in the same style as his tv presenting.

I'm very pleased though the Simonyi got passed onto a mathematician after so many years held by a biologist (and one that spent a large amount of time talking about other things).

 

[Globalti]

The universe is not shaped like a donut - it's DOUGHNUT. We are not Americans.

 

[Kirstie]

The universe is not shaped like a donut - it's DOUGHNUT. We are not Americans.

Wassat you say? A duffnut?

 

[marinyork]

If we're going to be recommending books, on the same topics I think Symmetry and the Monster is an excellent book, much better than the one du Sautoy wrote on similar topics (I'm biased, du Sautoy is a number theorist).

As for doughnuts I didn't see the programme but he was probably making the point about boundaries of the universe. He picked the (3 or 4) Torus as it's the easiest example, there are others.

 

[meenaghman]

Did I miss something.. I thought the point was the universe is not shaped like a donut or doughnut..

He explained that the 2D atari game console when mapped to 3D was a doughnut
ie one can start on Rhs of screen..go to LHS and then map that to 3D implies its a cylinder.
however on the game one can go from top, reappear at the bottom so both ends of the cylinder must meet.. so therefore its a doughnut.
however in real world we have 3 dimensions so effectively if the spaceship could go to the back of the screen and fall off the end, it would reappear coming back over your shoulder..
This then needs to be mapped into a 4D shape but it can't be easily visualised

 

[marinyork]

Just glue the opposite faces of a cube together.

 

[Andy in Sig]

The universe is not shaped like a donut - it's DOUGHNUT. We are not Americans.

That one slipped by me. Kirstie obviously needs to be taken out and shot a little bit.