- Saturday 16 December 2006
- Lecturers: Prof Marcus du Sautoy
Second lecture in the 2006 Christmas Lecture series 'The num8er my5teries'.
Why are bubbles always round even if you blow them with a square frame? Why are hexagons the bee's favourite shape? Why can we smell different sorts of symmetry? What shapes make good dice? Why are footballs made out of pentagons and hexagons? What do the flu virus and the domes in the Eden Project in Cornwall have in common? Ultimately what shape is the universe? Is it a big ball or does it have a hole in the middle? Marcus will guide us on a tour through the mathematical and cultural world of shapes: from the pyramids in Egypt to the domes of Italy, from the bagel shaped headquarters of the British code breakers to the blobby buildings of London. Ever since we've been building, we've been exploring what possible shapes Nature has left for us to play with. We'll even take a trip into hyperspace and find out how to see in four dimensions.
