In the early 1960's Eugene Wigner published a work entitled The
unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences. Our
talk will begin with a brief summary of Wigner's remarks. This will be
followed by arguments, based on examples, which are aimed at showing just
the opposite is true: there is an underlying natural force that guides
central themes in mathematics toward goals of understanding basic phenomena
in nature as well a wide range of everyday applications. We as
mathematicians know this, but perhaps we need to be reminded by reminiscing
on some of the beautiful long lines in our history. In the talk we will
attempt to do this using several examples, the central one being "From
planetary motion to IT-security". Perhaps this will encourage public
discussion of serious mathematical themes which result in the un
being crossed out of the unreasonable.
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Last modified: April 11 2016 - 18:14:43