Weekly Colloquia, Dept. of Math., E.I.U.

Department of Mathematics

Schedule of Events - updated 11/6/98

Friday 11/6, 4:00 - Colloquium

Cancelled

Monday 11/9, 4:00 - Departmental Meeting

Agenda: Consideration of the Recruitment Plan
OM 214

Wednesday, 11/11, 12:00 - Math Education Group Meeting

Speaker: Rosemary Schmalz
Topic: Data Gathering Devices for TI Calculators
OM 306

Wednesday 11/11, 3:00 - Algebra Seminar

Speaker: Leo Comerford
Topic: Test Elements and Generic Elements in Free Groups II
OM 316

Friday 11/13, 1:00 - Differential Geometry

Speaker: TBA
Topic: TBA
OM 316

Friday 11/13, 4:00 - Colloquium

Speaker: Charles Delman
Topic: Simple Surgery by the (Fibonacci) Numbers
OM 214
Abstract: (All specialized terms will be explained in the talk.)
Certain 3-manifolds, called simple 3-manifolds, are known to have very desirable geometric properties. Recent work of Gordon, Wu, Scharlemann, and others has completed a table showing that if a simple manifold is altered by Dehn surgery, the result is almost always simple, because any two surgeries which fail to produce a non-simple manifold are within a (small) distance given by the table. The numbers in this table are all Fibonacci numbers; no one knows why, or whether this fact is a coincidence or not!

Department of Mathematics Schedule of Events - updated 11/6/98