The Grand Rapids Community College Mathematics Department will be hosting its next monthly Mathematics Seminar on Wednesday, November 16, 3:30 – 4:30 PM in 108 Cook. Our speaker will be Dan Garbowitz. Dan teaches at Coopersville High School and is an adjunct instructor in the GRCC Mathematics Department. The title and abstract of Dan’s talk may be found below.
This talk should appeal to anyone who appreciates beauty in mathematics, or who would like to develop an appreciation for its beauty. As always, anyone from the greater GRCC community may attend.
Pop and cookies will be served at 3:15 PM.
Euler’s Formula for Polyhedra: The Second Most Beautiful Theorem in Mathematics
Euler’s formula for polyhedra is so simple that a grade school student can understand it, yet this simple formula remained hidden from mathematicians and great thinkers for over 2000 years! The results of the formula gave birth to a new branch of mathematics called topology. This talk will focus on the history of Euler’s formula and present two proofs of it. The proofs differ vastly in their arguments and each is quite beautiful. One will even use a second branch of mathematics that Euler is responsible for – graph theory.
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