Maths – The Orbital

31Jan

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Science & Technology

Rewriting Physics

One of the most commonly used phrases in the news about physics is: “the discovery that could rewrite physics”, or at least words to that effect and this got me wondering; does it take a discovery to rewrite physics? Can we only think again if we find what we were looking for? Or do we truly have to think of something new if we don’t make this discovery? What happens if what we were looking for wasn’t there, does this mean that the Universe is more boring than we thought, or is it just vastly more complex than we could even imagine? In this article I shall endeavour to convince you that the fun really starts when we get everything wrong. Our Universe is governed by some unique set of laws that are more wacky, more ridiculous than you could ever intuitively think of. The fact is, not a s...

Orbital Explains: The Line At Infinity

You’ve probably never stood on a train track, and looked as it disappeared off into the distance. But let’s imagine you have. The two mutually parallel tracks seem to meet just as they venture over the crest of the horizon - a strange illusion. You know that the two tracks can never meet, because a train has to be able to move over them, with a fixed distance between its wheels. Perhaps it is just an illusion, created by the optical receptors in your eye - or perhaps it isn’t. In Euclidean mathematics, two parallel lines will exist along side each other at a fixed length and never meet. Euclid also explained that two lines will meet at exactly one point, unless they are parallel. This idea upsets modern day mathematicians, who don’t like the word ‘unless’; they believe it’s not elegant....

Maths Soc Plan to Come Out on Top

Royal Holloway's Mathematics Society are hoping to reform next year as a more recognised society with the aim of recruiting more members than ever and to do their best to win society of the year at the Socs Ball 2016. Jacob Arends, who has been elected as President of MathSoc and was previously the Social Secretary, stated that he is "very proud to have been given the opportunity to be in the drivers seat of a society which has been such a huge part of my university life" . Jacob comments that "By the end of next year, I would like MathSoc to hold the reputation it deserves throughout campus. I would love to see the society reach a stage where our committee and members are proud to be part of something which unifies them under the name of Mathematics. " MathSoc have many provisional ...