Wonderfest: Geometry from the Inside

 

The geometry of the ancient Greeks took place on an ideal, infinite, flat plane. In the millenia since then, mathematicians have opened our minds to the more general and flexible geometries of curved spaces - from the fabric that makes up our clothing, to the spacetime around a black hole. Now, we can develop an 'insider's view' of such geometries. This newfound intuition has intriguing applications, including to recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope! Such understanding allows us to better appreciate Einstein's greatest insight: that gravity is not a force, but rather a consequence of living in a curvy world.

Speaker: Steve Trettel, University of San Francisco