The British Society for the History of Mathematics
BSHM / Institute of Mathematics & its Applications (East Midlands Branch) joint meeting.
University of Derby, Tuesday 13th November 2012 starting at 7.30 pm.
BSHM President, Professor Robin Wilson, will be giving his talk 'Lewis Carroll in Numberland'. Full details will appear on the IMA website when they become available.
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 this meeting; non-IMA members are welcome.
The British Society for the History of Mathematics is registered as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3326816, and as a charity, no. 1061229. Its registered office is c/o Andrew Thurburn & Co, 38 Tamworth Road, Croydon, Surrey CR0 1XU, UK.