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.
1 pm, Tuesday 13 March 2001
Science Lecture Theatre S14
Singular points and other strange beasts
Dr Adam Harris
Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics
Melbourne University
Curves and surfaces are not always smooth. In fact, they very often
become twisted, like the kinks in a garden host. These special points are called
"singularities", and they are found everywhere in nature, even in the structure
of spacetime itself. We will meet some examples of singularities, how they can
arise, and how mathematicians try to think about them.