(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-10-15)
Matsumoto, Elisabetta A.
The 2016 confirmation of Einstein's prediction of gravitational waves has put the spotlight back on the importance of curvature for the physics of the universe. While the ability of mass to curve our space has fueled the imagination of many, it is by far not the only instance of warped spaces being important for physics: The materials science of the very small scale -the science of nanostructures and nanoengineering- is one of them. In fact, often these 'small' spaces are very strongly curved, far from what mathematicians call 'Euclidean'; for example two parallel lines may no longer only meet at infinity. Bizarre and exotic spaces with very unusual properties. Until recently, many of these complex spaces defied most people's imagination, but Virtual Reality technology has now been developed to help us immerse in them. Prof Sabetta Matsumoto will take us on a tour -enabled by the latest in Virtual Reality technology- into the innate beauty and mystery of some spaces, such as the cross between a Euclidean straight line and Poincare's hyperbolic plane made popular by Escher's artwork. Real-world applications or technological uses of these mathematical insights may seem to be light-years off, but don't worry, the real world will catch up with the imagination faster than we think.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-11-28)
Matsumoto, Elisabetta A.
Curved space and bizarre mathematical worlds beyond Euclid’s axioms entered physics with Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But these geometries are all around us, hiding in plain sight, in the guise of familiar settings. For instance, did you know that making your clothes fit is actually a problem in non-Euclidean geometry? Join Prof. Matsumoto as she takes a sock’s eye view of geometry and topology and walks you through an evening of fun with fabrics.