James Tauber's Blog 2004/09/17
Journey to the Poincare Conjecture
I'm going to try something over the next few months (years?) that I hope will be of interest to at least some readers of this blog.
I've taken an interest recently in the Poincare Conjecture, one of the most famous outstanding problems in pure mathematics.
Although I understand the conjecture itself, recent developments in proving it involve some areas of mathematics that are well beyond my current level of understanding.
I plan to change that. I want to brush up on my algebraic topology, work my way up to Thurston's work on classifying 3-manifolds and Hamilton's work on Ricci Flow and eventually end up at a point where I can read, understand and maybe even enjoy Perelman's recent papers which may very well turn out to finally prove Poincare's Conjecture.
My intention is to blog what I learn as I go. It's an opportunity for me to better formulate my own understanding, improve the mathematical capabilities of Leonardo and maybe even help someone else learn a thing or two.
It's a change from my series of film project updates, but hopefully a fruitful one.
UPDATE: next post
by jtauber : Created on Sept. 17, 2004 : Last modified Aug. 10, 2007 : Categories poincare_project : 1 comment (permalink)
Favourite Pieces
A friend recently asked me my 10 favourite pieces of music. The first eight to pop into my head (grouped by period and composer) were:
- Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor
- Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
- Mozart's Clarinet Concerto
- Mozart's Symphony No. 41 (esp. last movement)
- Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 (esp. first movement)
- Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Prokofiev's Toccata in D minor
- Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1
If I thought about it more, they might not really all be in my top 10 but they'd all be close. In a larger list I'd include some Ligeti, Stravinsky, Copland and Glass.
by jtauber : Created on Sept. 17, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : (permalink)