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Contours 2016-17

Stories from the School of Mathematics. Undergraduate students interview researchers to find out what the life of a mathematician is like.

Stories from the School of Mathematics. Undergraduate students interview researchers to find out what the life of a mathematician is like.

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▼ As an undergraduate, David made a series of stained glass windows to illuminate mathematical concepts he found<br />

inspiring. The common tile motif at top and bottom is a ‘proof by pictures’ of the Pythagorean theorem.<br />

Perhaps you can try and figure out why!<br />

1 The Klein bottle, and its ‘fundamental<br />

group’.<br />

2 A proof that the same number, pi, is the ratio<br />

of a circle's circumference to its diameter,<br />

and of its area to the square of its<br />

radius.<br />

3 Designed by David's brother, Alex Jordan,<br />

this depicts Tartaglia's solution of the cubic<br />

equation.<br />

4 The golden spiral, and its relationship to the<br />

Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio.<br />

<strong>Contours</strong> 21

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