LivMS Event:

Katie Chicot: 'To Infinity and Beyond', Liverpool Hope University, 5.30pm preceded by refreshments at 5.00pm.

Katie Chicot was introduced by Peter Giblin as a Staff Tutor in the Open University's Department of Mathematics and Statistics whose research interests are in combinatorics. She has given presentations for the Royal Institution, for Maths Inspiration and for Maths in Action as well as talking in many individual schools.

Katie's talk included several mathematical demonstrations, such as the countability of the even numbers, the odd numbers and the rational numbers, contrasted with the uncountability of the real numbers, using Cantor's diagonal argument. She involved the audience in these discussions. They were combined with several very amusing videos, involving among other things a Monty Python football match between German and Greek philosophers, Achilles and the Tortoise, and Hilbert's infinite hotel. Her overall theme was that the infinite, and the infinitely small, are key concepts in mathematics which have led historically to crucial developments such as calculus, one of the most powerful tools for applications to the real world. She also emphasized the possibilities of research as a career for an aspiring mathematician.

Katie then answered questions from the audience and the session closed at about 6.40pm.

The talk was attended by about 60 people. Of these, 11 were existing LivMS members, 2 were new members who paid their subscription at the door, 10 paid the 2 GBP door charge and the rest were students, who are admitted free.

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