These talks will be self-contained presentations of mathematical concepts and theorems. They are intended to be accessible to all mathematics
students.  Coffee, tea and drinks will be provided.
 
 

The Pythagoreans taught that number is the measure of all things, and by number they meant the natural numbers. They taught that our material world contains four dimensions of granular, not infinitely divisible, space and time and material atoms of four fundamental elements of fire, air, water and earth. Yet the heavenly Plan, that is, the laws of nature, are framed in mathematical forms like the pentagon, the circle, conic sections and other forms which presuppose infinite divisibility of space, time and matter. Hence the incarnation of a perfect circle in the material world, God-made Man so to speak, would require a "squaring" of "the circle", and this is a mathematical impossibility. Squaring the circle has been among "the mysteries" from at least as far back as the oral traditions which were finally written down in the Rg Veda about five thousand years ago.

The first "published" proof of the irrationality of p was that of Lambert in 1761. I will explain Lambert's proof in very elementary terms, in such a way as to show that, despite superficial appearances, it would have been possible for smart cookies to have discovered a proof like this long before the Rg Veda.