The Humboldt State University Department of Mathematics
Presents:

The 43rd Harry S. Kieval Lecture**
 

Thursday, March 11, 2004
7:30 P.M.
Founders Hall 118

John Conway
John von Neumann Distinguished Professor of Mathematics
Princeton University
“The Mysterious Arithmetic of Knots”

 
Tangles are certain portions of knots.  I will explain, by making some of you dance, how the simplest tangles correspond to numbers, and how some parts of the arithmetic of numbers apply to tangles.
**A lecture on some popular and/or broad aspects of mathematics attractive to undergraduates and the public
For More Information go to: http://www.humboldt.edu/~mathdept/HarrySKieval/kl.html

HSU is an AA/EO institution.
Disability accommodations may be available from event sponsor at 826-5347

MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM

Professor John Conway
John von Neumann Distinguished Professor of Mathematics
Princeton University

Thursday, March 11, 2004, 4:00 P.M.
Science B 135

Pre-Colloquium Tea
Library 56 3:30 P.M.

“The Mysterious Arithmetic of Lexicographic Codes”


Integral Lexicographic codes are very simply defined (by a “greedy algorithm”), but have strange arithmetical properties that are hidden in a theorem I call “The Lexicode Theorem”.  I will tell you what the theorem says, and together we will puzzle out what (if anything) it means.


World-famous mathematician John H. Conway is the author or co-author of at least ten books and many expository articles that have had substantial impact not just on research mathematics but on amateurs as well.  Conway has a rare gift for naming mathematical objects, and for inventing useful mathematical notations.  His joy in mathematics is clearly evident in all that he writes.  Educated at the University of Cambridge, he worked at Cambridge for many years before joining the Princeton faculty in 1986.