The Royal Institution (The RI), London

The Royal Institution, London (The RI)

Post Summary

Check out the Royal Institutions website, http://www.rigb.org/, for a range of videos on topics relating to mathematics as well as to look out for any future talks that may be of interest. Below is list of the material that can be found on the site with hyperlinks for convenience.

The Royal Institution (The RI)

Back in April this year I traveled down to London to the Royal Institution to attend a lecture titled: "The Extraordinary theorems of John Nash" by the famous mathematician Cedric Villani. The talk lasted just over an hour and went over the various mathematical achievements of John Nash discussing what the basic problems were, the historical context, what he discovered and so what his discoveries meant. The talk was excellent with Villani, a charismatic speaker, making a potentially complex topic easy to understand for the lay person whilst prompting laughs along the way.

Talks like this, on topics in science and mathematics, are run throughout the year at the Institution as it pursues its goal of "harnessing science for the maximum benefit to society". Public engagement ranges from summer schools and masterclasses for students to public talks given by distinguished speakers. 

The purpose of this post was to highlight not only that, around twice year, fantastic talks are given on subjects in mathematics but, since all their talks are recorded, the site is also a great repository of mathematics videos. As the topics don't require the viewer to possess much knowledge about mathematics they are great introductions to its various branches. 

I have found over 16 hours of video on their site. Links to around 14 of those hours can be found below. 5 of these are talks from the last 3 years on a range of topics while the other 9 come from the Christmas lectures run at the Institution each year - there have been 3 years where the topic has been on mathematics and the recordings from two of those years can be found on the site.

Below is a list of the majority of the great material that can be found on the site, with hyperlinks. Have a look on the RI site to find some shorter videos not listed here.

Maths Talks at the RI

Q & A sessions are held after each talk and you can also find videos of these on the website.

Forbidden crystal symmetry in mathematics and architecture - Professor Roger Penrose, 18th September 2013

Our mathematical universe - Professor Max Tegmark, 30th January 2014

Topology, geometry and life in three dimensions - Professor Caroline Series, 28th November 2014

The birth of a theorem - Professor Cédric Villani, 9th March 2015

How not to be wrong: The power of mathematical thinking - Professor Jordan Ellenberg, 1st June 2015

The extraordinary theorems of John Nash - Professor Cédric Villani, 29th April 2016 (No video available yet)

The perfect bet:  How science and maths are taking the luck out of gambling - Professor Adam Kucharski, 1st June 2016 (No video available yet)

Christmas Lectures at the RI on Mathematics

Below are the lecture topics with their respective video length. The RI site gives a detailed description of the content in each video.

Mathematics into pictures, Sir Christopher Zeeman -1978

- Linking and Knotting, 59:57

- Numbers and Geometry, 59:55

- Infinity and Perspective, 60:11

- Games and Evolution, 59:15

- Waves and Music, 55:63

- Castrophe and Pyschology, 60:25

The Magical Maze, Professor Ian Stewart - 1997 (the recordings for these are sadly not available on the RI site)

- Sunflowers and Snowflakes

- The Pattern of Tiny Feet

- Outrageous Fortune

- Chaos and Cauliflowers

- Fearful Symmetry

The Num8er My5teries, Professor Marcus du Sautoy - 2006

- Prime Numbers and Infinity, 39:11

- Shapes in 2, 3 and 4 dimensions. Fractal geometry and infinite length, 39:03

- Applying strategy and logic, 38:46

- Code systems, check digits and error correction, 39:04

- Mechanics, predicting outcomes and chaos theory, 39:13

You can of course find all of these videos by simply navigating from the RI's homepage to their video section. I hope that someone finds these videos as interesting as I did and, if they have the chance, they get to attend one of these in person.