Studium Generale: Determinism, Chaos and Chance

door Henk Broer

An important part of the foundation of today’s mathematical and scientific research is based on what is known as Chaos Theory. Or, as today’s speaker, prof. dr. Henk Broer prefers to call it, Dynamical Systems theory. The focus of this theory concerns an age-old problem: is the universe in a state of chaos, with chance, luck, and coincidence determining the outcome of our lives, or is the world in fact directly determined by complex and dynamic mathematical laws? In seeking to answer this question, researchers and engineers hope to tackle the problem of unpredictable weather patterns, geological processes, bird swarms, voting trends, and the evolution of society itself. Because if you can control chaos – with just a little bit of mathematics – you can control everything. EVERYTHING.

Of course, professor Broer’s lunch lecture will leave the mad scientist speculations to the audience, and will instead delve into an historical and entertaining view of dynamical systems and the associated ‘stability problem.’ “How far into the future can we predict the date for Easter?” prof. Broer wonders. “My line of questioning takes us past Poincare to both chaos and coincidence. I show that much of what we call coincidence actually is chaos; think, for example, of rolling a pair of dice, or of a pendulum suspended above three magnets.”

If you need to leave the lecture at 1:30pm for classes, we ask that you seat yourself in an area where you can leave quietly so that the rest of the audience can continue enjoying the lecture. This lunch lecture should take about an hour, after which there will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

In the meantime, whet your appetite for the lecture by looking up the BBC documentary on Chaos Theory, “The Secret Life of Chaos.”

SIGN UP: If you sign up for this lecture ahead of time you will receive a lunch courtesy of the Students Association for Mathematics (WISV Christiaan Huygens). You can either sign up by paying €1 euro at the WISV students assocation, located on the ground floor of the EWI building, or you can send an email notification to sg@remove-this.tudelft.nl. We will then put your name on a list, and if you bring your €1 to the lecture the lunch is yours for the taking.

Henk Broer is professor of Dynamical Systems at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Groningen as well as Scientific Director of the Johann Bernoulli Institute. He has also contributed to art projects and interviews related to Chaos and Dynamical Systems Theory.

Toegang gratis
Meer informatie: www.sg.tudelft.nl