Remarkable progress in understanding the dynamics of the planets has been possible thanks to their relatively small masses and the overwhelming dominance of the Sun. The figure below shows the relative masses of the Sun, planets and some natural satellites, taking the mass of Earth to be unity. The Sun is one million times more … Continue reading Solar System Perturbations
Month: March 2014
The Unity of Mathematics
This week, That’s Maths in The Irish Times ( TM041 ) is about an ambitious program to unify mathematics. Mathematics expands! Results once proven to be true remain forever true. They are not displaced by subsequent results, but absorbed in an ever-growing theoretical web. Thus, it is increasingly difficult for any individual mathematician to have … Continue reading The Unity of Mathematics
The Langlands Program
An ambitious programme to unify disparate areas of mathematics was set out some fifty years ago by Robert Langlands of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The “Langlands Program” (LP) is a set of deep conjectures that attempt to build bridges between certain algebraic and analytical objects. Substantial strides have been made in the … Continue reading The Langlands Program
Simulating the Future Climate
The Earth's climate is changing, and the consequences may be very grave. This week, That’s Maths in The Irish Times ( TM040 ) is about computer models for simulating and predicting the future climate. Liffey Bursts its Banks: St. Stephen's Green Flooded Again The above is an improbable but not entirely impossible future headline. Sea … Continue reading Simulating the Future Climate
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