Lunchmaths is a series of fun mathematics lectures, intended to be accessible and of interest to undergrads with a minimum of maths background. Bring along your sandwiches. Tea/Coffee provided.
 

After a short introduction to finite geometries, I'll take you on a fully computer-animated guided tour of the smallest perfect universe -- a complex universe of breathtaking abstract beauty, consisting of only 15 points, 35 lines and 15 planes -- a space whose overall design incorporates and improves many of the standard features of the three-dimensional Euclidean space we live in. Witness how the two most beautiful models of this universe take shape before your eyes. Listen to your tour guide as he illustrates the most important properties of the space. Marvel at spheres that consist of only 5 points, God's fingerprint (Desargues configuration) in its most symmetric spatial realisation, packings of the space that solve a classic problem in combinatorics (Kirkman's schoolgirls problem), and much more.

Among mathematicians our perfect universe is known as PG(3,2) -- the smallest three-dimensional projective space. It plays an important role in many core mathematical disciplines such as combinatorics, group theory, and geometry. For a sneak preview of some of the models featured in this presentation, see http://www.maths.adelaide.edu.au/Pure/bpolster/perfect.html.