Events
Events:
Public Talk on Mathematics Mar 17, 2019
Exciting Science Group is happy and excited to announce the next Popular Science Talk:
Why are soap bubbles approximately spherical?
Date : 17 March 2019 (Sunday)
Time : 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Venue: New Lecture Hall, Smt Indrani Balan Science Activity Centre, IISER Pune
Abstract: The following questions arise quite naturally from what we see around us. Why are soap bubbles that float in air approximately spherical? Why does a herd of reindeer form a round shape when attacked by wolves? Of all geometric objects having a certain property, which ones have the greatest area or volume; and of all objects having a certain property, which ones have the least perimeter or surface area? These problems have been stimulating much mathematical thought. Mathematicians have been trying to answer such questions and this has led to a branch of mathematical analysis known as “shape optimization problems”. A typical shape optimization problem is, as the name suggests, to find a shape which is optimal in the sense that it minimizes a certain cost functional while satisfying given constraints. Isoperimetric problems form a special class of shape optimization problems. A typical isoperimetric problem is to enclose a given area with a shortest possible curve. I will be talking about the classical Isoperimetric Problem, its fascinating history and its evolution with time.
Age Group: Ideally Class 7 - 10. However, we welcome other students to attend.
Supported by: IISER-Pune, CSIR-NCL, Venture Center, Persistent Foundation, Forbes Foundation, Nag Foundation and Praj Foundation
Registration is FREE and on a first-come-first-serve basis.
