Centre for Mathematics, University of Coimbra

Colloquia - Historic

The transfer of Mathematics in an age of anxiety, 1930-1945

2019-05-03

Speaker : Eduardo L. Ortiz (Imperial College, London, UK)

In the years 1928 to 1937 a small group of scientists and engineers from different countries of Western Europe moved to the Soviet Union. They were hired to help in tasks anticipated by the early Five-Year Plans. That is, helping to achieve the rapid industrialization objectives promoted by...

Leibniz is still alive - and so are his mathematical ideas in the third millennium

2016-09-21

Speaker : Marcel Erné (Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany)

In the current year 2016, we are celebrating the third centennial of Leibniz's death. This is a good occasion to present some highlights in the immense mathematical work of the great universal genius under a modern point of view, and to add some surprising interpretations that might have...

Four colours suffice

2010-07-07

Speaker : Robin J. Wilson (Open Univ. and Oxford Univ., UK)

In this talk I present the history and proof of the four-colour theorem: Can every map be coloured with just four colours so that neighbouring countries are coloured differently? The proof took 124 years to find, and used 1200 hours of computer time. But what did it involve, and is it really...

The Memoirs of Évariste Galois

2009-07-13

Speaker : Peter M. Neumann (Univ. Oxford, UK)

Évariste Galois was born 200 years ago and died aged 20, shot in a mysterious early-morning duel in 1832. He left contributions to the theory of equations that changed the direction of mathematics and led directly to what is now broadly described as 'modern' or 'abstract' algebra. In...

Was Cantor Surprised?

2009-03-04

Speaker : Fernando Gouvêa (Colby College, Maine, USA)

A well-known story tells that Cantor was so surprised by one of his theorems that he exclaimed "I see it, but I don't believe it!" We will examine the sources to see what really happened. ...

The uses of mathematical images in the seventeenth century, from Galileo to Newton

2008-03-13

Speaker : Jean Dhombres (CNRS, EHESS, Paris)

From long ago, historians have shown the importance of images (emblems books, jesuit propaganda, etc.) during the seventeenth century. Historians of science also emphasized the role played by Optics and its representations. But there has been quite an absence about the role played by images...

What geometry in the early history of architecture?

2006-10-17

Speaker : Kim Williams

It is commonly said that Euclidean geometry played a large part in the development of architecture, but is this really true? An examination of the two earliest and best known treatises of architecture, On architecture by Vitruvius and the Sketchbooks of Villard de Honnecourt reveal no trace...