Kepler formulated three remarkable laws of planetary motion. He deduced them directly from observations of the planets, most particularly of the motion of Mars. The first two laws appeared in 1609 in Kepler's Astronomia Nova. The first law (K1) describes the orbit of a planet as an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. The … Continue reading K3 implies the Inverse Square Law.
Month: April 2019
Closing the Gap between Prime Numbers
Occasionally, a major mathematical discovery comes from an individual working in isolation, and this gives rise to great surprise. Such an advance was announced by Yitang Zhang six years ago. [TM161 or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com]. After completing his doctorate at Purdue in 1991, Zhang had great difficulty finding an academic position and worked at various … Continue reading Closing the Gap between Prime Numbers
Massive Collaboration in Maths: the Polymath Project
Sometimes proofs of long-outstanding problems emerge without prior warning. In the 1990s, Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem. More recently, Yitang Zhang announced a key result on bounded gaps in the prime numbers. Both Wiles and Zhang had worked for years in isolation, keeping abreast of developments but carrying out intensive research programs unaided by … Continue reading Massive Collaboration in Maths: the Polymath Project
A Pioneer of Climate Modelling and Prediction
Today we benefit greatly from accurate weather forecasts. These are the outcome of a long struggle to advance the science of meteorology. One of the major contributors to that advancement was Norman A. Phillips, who died in mid-March, aged 95. Phillips was the first person to show, using a simple computer model, that mathematical simulation … Continue reading A Pioneer of Climate Modelling and Prediction
ThatsMaths 