The foundation of quantitative geometry, the new astronomy proposed by Copernicus et al and Newton’s mathematical principle of natural philosophy are some of the greatest achievements in the history of sciences. Prof Wu-yi hsiang from UC Berkeley provides an overview on the historical backgrounds that led to these monumental successes and revisits these breakthroughs with new insights and simpler ways of achieving those discoveries.
Institute for Advanced Study
Enquiries ias@ust.hk / 2358 5912 http://ias.ust.hk
Abstract
A brief survey of the history of sciences, from Pythagoras to Newton, will show that the major developments are mainly in Geometry, Astronomy and Physics, while the following triple are their respective great achievements and outstanding monuments, namely
1) The foundation of quantitative geometry (Hippasus, Eudoxus)
2) The new astronomy (Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler)
3) Mathematical principle of natural philosophy (Newton)
In this talk, I shall provide an overview on the historical backgrounds that led to the above monumental successes and I shall also provide revisitings of the above great break-throughs with new insights and simpler ways of achieving those discoveries.
About the Speaker
Wu-Yi Hsiang received his PhD in mathematics from Princeton University in 1964 under the supervision of John Moore. He had taught at University of California at Berkeley for more than 20 years before he came to HKUST as a professor of mathematics in 1998. His research has been mainly on transformation groups and differential geometry. Since the 1990s, Prof Hsiang switched back to classical geometry and worked on sphere packing problems.
Institute for Advanced Study
Enquiries ias@ust.hk / 2358 5912 http://ias.ust.hk
