November 14, 2023
Lecture on geometry of unusual billiards on Nov. 16
Submitted by Natalia Rozhkovskaya
Sergei Tabachnikov, professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania State University, will present on "Billiards in Conics" from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, at the online Art and Math Seminar. Registration is required to participate in the seminar.
Conics are special curves that include parabolas, circles and hyperbolas. They have important reflection properties that can be interpreted as a game of ideal billiard bouncing in the walls of these unusual shapes. Following the tradition of the Art and Math Seminar, the talk will be illustrated with many pictures.
Tabachnikov has served as editor-in-chief of Experimental Mathematics in 2013–2019, as deputy director of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics at Brown University in 2013–2015, and as co-editor-in-chief of the journal Mathematical Intelligencer since 2021. He believes that it is important to popularize mathematics at all levels, and he has been involved in this activity all his professional life. He co-authored a book, "Mathematical Omnibus," that has beet translated into German, Russian and Japanese. Tabachnikov has also published two books on mathematical billiards, a book on projective differential geometry and a book in Russian, "Polynomials," for high school students.