2012-11-13 East Midlands Branch

Lewis Carroll in Numberland
A talk by: Professor Robin Wilson (The Open University and Pembroke College, Oxford)

Tuesday 13th November 2012 starting at 7.30 pm

Venue: Main Building (Room to be confirmed)
University of Derby, Kedleston Road

Abstract: Charles Dodgson is best known for his Alice books, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass', written under his pen-name of Lewis Carroll. If Dodgson had not written the Alice books or a pioneering photographer, he might be remembered as a mathematician, the career he held as a lecturer at Christ Church in Oxford University. But what mathematics did he do? How good a mathematician was he? How influential was his work? In this illustrated talk, aimed at a general audience, Robin Wilson will try to answer these questions. In particular, describe work in geometry, algebra, logic and the mathematics of voting, in the context of other activities. On the lighter side present some of the puzzles and paradoxes that he delighted in showing to his child-friends and contemporaries.

Robin Wilson is an emeritus professor at the Open University, and at Gresham College, London, a former fellow of Keble College, Oxford and President of the British Society for the History of Mathematics. He has written and edited a number of books on mathematics and extensively involved with the popularization and communication of mathematics and its history.

No charge is made to attend meetings; non-IMA members are welcome.