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Bradley Edge, acting instructor in mathematics at Randolph Macon Women’s College, will speak on “Pushdown Automata and Decision Problems: An Example of 20th Century Mathematics” noon today in Pardee Hall room 227.
The free talk is part of the Mathematical Adventures and Diversions series sponsored by the math department. Free lunch will be provided.
Edge, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech, will address the demise of the certainty in western society that no question cannot eventually be answered by scientific inquiry. “An elementary introduction to some 20th century mathematics [will be] offered,” according to MAAD organizers, “demonstrating an effort to come to terms with uncertainty and even to appropriate it as a tool for developing definite knowledge.”
MAAD talks are on mathematical topics and applications often not encountered in mathematics courses. They are open to the Lafayette community and assume no special mathematical preparation on the part of the audience.
Earlier this semester, Gary Gordon, professor of mathematics at Lafayette, spoke on “Gears that Turn and Archimedian Solids” (see related story).