Cosmic Calculus – Decoding the Universe with Math

Isaac Newton’s laws of physics explain how objects ranging from galaxies to grains of sand behave. However, when objects get small enough – like atoms or electrons – Newton’s equations cease to work. Instead, these tiny “quantum” particles follow the laws of quantum mechanics. In this talk, I will demystify the eccentric phenomena that quantum mechanics gives rise to. This will include so-called superpositions, entanglement — and maybe even time travel.

The study of geometry is at least 2500 years old, and it is within this field that the concept of mathematical proof - deductive reasoning from a set of axioms - first arose. I will explain how Euclidean and non—Euclidean geometry can describe the space time inside a black hole.

In June 1925 Werner Heisenberg sought refuge from hay fever on the treeless North Sea island of Helgoland. Struggling to reconcile the spectrum of the light emitted by atoms with a Newtonian model of a miniature solar system, with electrons as planets orbiting a nuclear sun, Heisenberg came to abandon this classical picture in favour of an abstract scheme without precedent, at once veiling the quantum world in mathematics while bringing forth a theory of unparalleled precision. I will explain what Heisenberg did, and why this singular creative act has maddened physicists and historians since.