Mathematics
Maths gets into a spin: Department takes part in Asia's largest science fair
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:00:00 GMT
Spinning a hard-boiled egg on a tabletop could help unlock the mysteries of Earth’s weather, according to a team of mathematicians, including Dr Andrew Burbanks of the University of Portsmouth, who have been invited to take part in Asia’s biggest science fair this month.
The team of mathematicians uses ordinary objects including toys to help explain - in an easy-to-digest manner - the maths behind important scientific problems in an exhibition they call ‘The Dynamics of Spin’. Their idea to use spinning toys to unlock and explain mysteries in physics has won them fans in the science world and on YouTube and they have now been invited to exhibit at India’s international science and technology festival TechFest on January 25-27.
When the team put on their first exhibit in London, as part of the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, it was voted in the top three out of the many science exhibits present. New Scientist magazine filmed part of the exhibition and put the clip on YouTube winning an audience of more than 22,000 people.
The team is made up of mathematicians from four universities: Cambridge, Bristol, Portsmouth and Keio, Japan. They will work together at the Techfest in Mumbai to demonstrate how certain mechanical toys can seem to defy laws of physics and how understanding them leads to new insights on important questions about the world.
Dr Burbanks said: “It is wonderful to help people understand more about the physical world and the way in which scientists attempt to understand it. This is often portrayed as a dry and predictable topic, but in fact is full of the same kinds of intuitive, creative, processes that we enjoy in other areas of our lives.
“We take it in shifts to draw-in the public, get them interested and show them the surprising – often startling – behaviour of apparently simple objects. We outline the explanations for it, together with hints as to why even toys can provide important breakthroughs in the study of serious problems. It is a delight to watch peoples' reactions as they see mundane objects violating their common sense view of how the world behaves, and to help them to open their minds and appreciate the world on a slightly deeper level.”
The exhibit aims to explain how understanding the dynamics of a spinning hard-boiled egg could help unlock the mechanisms that generate the Earth's weather patterns, how the behaviour of a coin dropped on to a table might shed light on a million dollar question about turbulent fluid flows, and how spinning a strange canoe-shaped object called a rattleback may reveal phenomena underlying the Earth's magnetic field.
“Institutions such as universities can play a key role in society by not only engaging in high-quality research and teaching, but by also seeking to communicate discoveries in a way that will both inform and encourage future generations to undertake academic study and research," said Dr Burbanks.
The Dynamics of Spin team is Professor Keith Moffatt FRS and Dr Tadashi Tokeida (Mathematics, University of Cambridge), Dr Michal Branicki (Mathematics, University of Bristol), Dr Andrew Burbanks (Mathematics, University of Portsmouth), and Professor Yutaka Shimomura (University of Keio, Japan).