Shape of Space

Frank Sottile

In mathematics and science, we often need to think about 
high (3 or more) dimensional objects, called spaces, which 
are hard or impossible to visualize. Besides the question 
of what such objects are or could be, is the problem of 
how can we make sense of such spaces.

The goal of this discussion is to give you an idea of how 
mathematicians manage to make sense of higher-dimensional 
spaces, and relate this to the recent proof of the Poincare 
conjecture that won the Millenium Prize of the Clay Institute. 
We will do this by exploring the simplest spaces, and through 
our explorations, we will begin to see how we may tell 
different spaces apart.

Besides bringing your enquiring minds, at least 50% of 
the attendees need to bring a belt for those articles will 
play a key role in our discussion.