Lecture, Barnard's Inn Hall, Tuesday, 30 Jan 2024 - 13:00

Mathematical Puzzles and Paradoxes

Man having his beard trimmed

Many puzzles have a long history, such as water pouring puzzles, where you need to measure (for example) one pint of water equipped only with an eight-pint and a five-pint jug. The mathematics behind the solution has many useful applications.

Meanwhile, paradoxes such as: “some men shave themselves; those that do not shave themselves are shaved by the barber: who shaves the barber?” lead us to deep questions about set theory.

We will discuss several examples and the related mathematics.

Sarah Hart Professor of Geometry

Professor Sarah Hart

Professor of Geometry

Sarah Hart is the first woman Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, and was appointed in 2020. She is Professor of Mathematics and until recently was Head of Mathematics and Statistics at Birkbeck, University of London.

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