Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Series
  • People
  • Depts & Colleges
  • Open Education

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Series
  • People
  • Depts & Colleges
  • Open Education

The Seduction of Curves: The Lines of Beauty That Connect Mathematics, Art and The Nude - Allan McRobie

Series
The Secrets of Mathematics
Video Embed
Allan McRobie explains how the key to understanding the language of curves is Rene Thom’s Catastrophe Theory, and how remarkably the best place to learn that language is perhaps in the life drawing class.
There is a deep connection between the stability of oil rigs, the bending of light during gravitational lensing and the act of life drawing. To understand each, we must understand how we view curved surfaces. We are familiar with the language of straight-line geometry -- of squares, rectangles, hexagons. But curves also have a language -- of folds, cusps and swallowtails that few of us know.

Sharing its title with Allan's new book, the talk will wander gently across mathematics, physics, engineering, biology and art, but always with a focus on curves.

Warning: this talk contains nudity.

Allan McRobie is Reader in Engineering, University of Cambridge

More in this series

View Series
The Secrets of Mathematics

Maths v Disease - Julia Gog

Can mathematics really help us in our fight against infectious disease? Join Julia Gog as we explore exciting current research areas where mathematics is being used to study pandemics, viruses and everything in between.
Previous
The Secrets of Mathematics

Oxford Mathematics London Public Lecture - Andrew Wiles

In the first Oxford Mathematics London Public Lecture, in partnership with the Science Museum, world-renowned mathematician Andrew Wiles lectured on his current work around Elliptic Curves followed by conversation with Hannah Fry.
Next
Transcript Available

Episode Information

Series
The Secrets of Mathematics
People
Allan McRobie
Keywords
curves
folds
cusps
swallowtail
Department: Mathematical Institute
Date Added: 16/11/2017
Duration: 00:46:31

Subscribe

Apple Podcast Video Apple Podcast Audio Video RSS Feed

Download

Download Video Download Transcript

Footer

  • About
  • Accessibility
  • Contribute
  • Copyright
  • Contact
  • Privacy
'Oxford Podcasts' Twitter Account @oxfordpodcasts | MediaPub Publishing Portal for Oxford Podcast Contributors | Upcoming Talks in Oxford | © 2011-2022 The University of Oxford