Otherways: Home Education Network

Each year the Mathematics Association of Victoria gives a series of fun, interesting and free lectures.

VENUE: The Age Theatre, Melbourne Museum
Carlton Gardens, Carlton, Melbourne
Melway reference: 2B J10
TIME: 11:30am to 12:30pm on Sundays as listed
COST: Free! Note: teachers and students attending the public lectures can also visit the rest of the museum free-of-charge

As a general guide Burkard’s sessions are more suitable for primary students and Marty’s are more suitable for secondary students and adults.

MATHEMAGICAL TRICKERY
Presented by Dr Burkard Polster
DATE: Sunday, 10 August 2008  

In this special performance, the Mysterious Masked Mathemagician will amaze you with ingenious mathematical tricks used by conmen, fraudsters, and world-famous illusionists such as David Copperfield. This is a once-in a lifetime opportunity to find out some of the most closely guarded secrets of the art of mathemagical trickery. Don’t miss it!

CHEATING LIKE A MATHEMATICIAN: A HISTORY
Presented by Dr Marty Ross 
DATE: Sunday, 14 September 2008

What is the key to success in mathematics? Cheating! When confronted with an unsolvable problem, mathematicians have simply change the rules, and “solved” the problem according to their new rules. Amazingly, this underhanded technique has proved to be incredibly successful, not just for the sneaky mathematicians, but for mathematics itself. In this talk we’ll give a capsule history of mathematics, as two thousand years of such cheating.
 
THE SECRET LIFE OF SOAP BUBBLES
Presented by Dr Burkard Polster
DATE: Sunday, 12 October 2008  

Kids love blowing bubbles: you can pop them, and you can make a mess! Mathematicians love bubbles too, because they are mathematical oracles: they are guides to beautiful solutions of many tricky problems. Come and discover the best-kept secrets of soap bubble maths. Learn how to use these secrets to your own evil ends, and get some practical advice on doing the impossible: blowing bubbles in bubbles, making cubical bubbles, exploding dodecahedral bubbles, and more.
 
MARTY - POKER, NUCLEAR WAR AND OTHER FUN GAMES
Presented by Dr Marty Ross
DATE: Sunday, 9 November 2008  

Games are not just games anymore. Now that mathematicians are playing, “games” are everywhere, used to analyse anything and everything. This idea of was made famous by the mathematician John Nash (Russell Crowe), propositioning girls in A Beautiful Mind. In the real world, it led to Nash’s Nobel Prize for Economics. Beyond this, game theory has been applied to biology, to politics and war, and to much, much more. In our talk will describe how mathematicians think about games. We’ll show how game theory can provide insight whenever there is the possibility of conflict or competition, or even of cooperation.

Bookings are required.

For more information and bookings see the Maths Association of Victoria website http://www.mav.vic.edu.au/public-lectures/2008/index.html 

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ANZAAS, Victorian Division
EVENING SCIENCE TALK IN MELBOURNE
All welcome, free entry (No booking needed)
Refreshments following the talk.

Venue:  Casey Plaza Theatre (RMIT), Bowne Street, off LaTrobe Street (Melway 579 H6)

Mr Geoff Williams and Dr Melody Serena from the Australian Platypus Conservancy speaking on…
 

Platypus ecology in the Melbourne area.

The platypus is regarded as one of the world’s strangest animals. It is a mammal but, like a reptile, lays eggs and produces venom. The animal’s unique bill also contains hundreds of electrical receptors which it uses to locate its food.

People think this supposedly shy and sensitive creature is found only in pristine rivers, far from our cities. But the platypus can actually inhabit a range of water bodies in close proximity to humans.

Since 1995 the Australian Platypus Conservancy, together with  Melbourne Water, has undertaken studies to map where platypus occur in the metropolitan area and learn more about the species’ ecology in urbanised habitats. These have shown water quality and toxic contaminants in bottom sediment to be just two aspects of platypus habitat influencing the survival of Melbourne’s platypus populations.

Better understanding of the animal’s remarkable mobility (which has seen some individuals make journeys of more than 50 kilometres) and its unexpectedly long lifespan is providing some insight into how the species might respond to drought, flood and longer term climate change.

ANZAAS Melbourne science talks series acknowledges the support by the Finkel Foundation.

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Transforming Australian Science with the Australian Synchrotron
26th Lady Masson Memorial Lecture

Free Public Lecture

When: Wednesday 13 September, 5.15 pm
Where: Masson Lecture Theatre, School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne

Professor Frank Larkins
Deputy Vice Chancellor International & Professor of Chemistry
The University of Melbourne
Chair, Australian Synchrotron Scientific Advisory Committee
For more information see flyer: http://www.chemistry.unimelb.edu.au/events/2006_flyer.pdf

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University of Melbourne Public Lecture

Date: Wednesday 9th August, 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Location: Elizabeth Murdoch Theatre, The University of Melbourne
Speaker: Professor John Collis, University of Sheffield, UK

For more information see: http://www.ahcca.unimelb.edu.au/community/Events/Lectures/john-collis.html

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University of Melbourne Public Lecture

Date: Tuesday 8th August, 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Elizabeth Murdoch Theatre, The University of Melbourne
Speaker: Professor Grant Parker, Duke University

Alexander the Great, Alexander the Traveller: narrating Mediterranean travels in the Alexander Romance.

For more information see: http://www.ahcca.unimelb.edu.au/community/Events/Lectures/G-Parker.html

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University of Melbourne Public Lecture

Date: Thursday 3rd August, 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: Theatre A, Elizabeth Murdoch Building, University of Melbourne Parkville

Speaker: Dr Timothy Duff, University of Reading, UK

Topic: Education and Childhood in Ancient Greek Biographies

For more information see:  http://www.ahcca.unimelb.edu.au/community/Events/Lectures/T-Duff.html

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Friday 28 July, 6.30-9pm with light refreshments and telescope viewing after the talk at Melbourne Planetarium with David Malin, Anglo-Australian Observatory and RMIT University.

Because they are so faint, we are unable to see the stars in colour. Even fainter are the nebulae, places where stars form from dust and gas. But colour is undoubtedly there, and the light from many star-forming regions is often almost monochromatic, the most saturated colours that can be.

David will discuss how these elusive colours arise and what they tell us about the chemistry and physics of outer space. He will also show how the interplay of starlight, gas and dust produces some of the most alluring and colourful cosmic landscapes, as much a part of the natural world as any terrestrial scene.

Cost: $15, including a complimentary Planetarium pass to be used on your next visit to Scienceworks. Bookings essential, contact (03) 9392 4819. More information: www.museum.vic.gov.au/planetarium

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Tuesday 25 July, 6.30-9pm with light refreshments and telescope viewing after the talk with Rob Landis, Mission Operations Directorate, NASA Johnson Space Center.

Between the twin landings of Spirit and Opportunity on Mars, the President of the United States announced on 14 January 2004 a new direction for NASA to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon before the end of the next decade. However, prior to those initial human sorties back to the Moon, the U.S. will close out the space shuttle program, perform a final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, and complete the International Space Station. Simultaneously, robotic pre-cursor missions will pave the way for the next human adventure to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour. Humanity is returning to the Moon for three important reasons: science, inspiration and resources. Hear NASA’s plans for the future and the vision for the next generation of human space exploration.

Cost: $15, including a complimentary Planetarium pass to be used on your next visit to Scienceworks. Bookings essential, contact (03) 9392 4819. More information: www.museum.vic.gov.au/planetarium

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THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

University of Melbourne Public Lecture
Wednesday 26 July 2006 @ 06:30 pm - 07:30 pm
Theatre A, Elisabeth Murdoch Building

Speaker: Professor Thierry Dufrene

Professor Dufrêne will lecture on Picasso’s most celebrated painting Guernica, in connection with the exhibition concurrently at the National Gallery of Victoria, Picasso: Love and War 1935 to 1945. Picasso’s great political work of protest may never be lent, and so it is absent from the Melbourne exhibition, an absence that Professor Dufrêne will make good in his lecture.

Ann Baldassari’s exhibition from the Musée Picasso has new material from the estate of Dora Maar about the creation of Picasso’s masterpiece. Professor Dufrêne is one of the leading French authorities on art and sculpture of the twentieth and twenty first centuries in France.

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The World of Mathematics 2006: Celebrating Achievement.

Sunday, 16 July 2006
Light Bulbs
Time: 11:00am to 12:00noon

Lecturer: Dr Burkard Polster

How many mathematicians does it take to change a light bulb?
What is the best way to stabilize a wobbling table?
What is the best way to lace your shoes?
Why does toast usually land butter-side down?

If you are interested in some seriously ingenious answers to these and similar pressing questions, don’t miss this talk!

A Free Public Lecture Series at Melbourne Museum. Presented by The Mathematical Association of Victoria in association with The Age.

Cost: Free. Note: teachers and students attending the public lectures can also visit the rest of the museum free-of-charge

The Age Theatre, Melbourne Museum
Carlton Gardens, Carlton, Melbourne
Melway reference: 2B J10

More information and bookings see http://www.mav.vic.edu.au/public-lectures/2006/index.html

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