Instructor: M Zworski

Seminar Time: Wed, 4-5 PM, 891 Evans.

Course Control Number: 53763

Office: 801 Evans, e-mail: zworski@math.berkeley.edu

Office Hours: W 2-3 PM

Seminar Topics: A vibrating string produces sound with waves of certain lengths. And by hearing that sound you can (in principle) tell the length of the string. When you fill a glass with water you can tell when you are close to the top with your eyes closed: the pitch of the sound gets higher. Mathematics and physics of these precise phenomena can be very complicated but the basic theories behind wavelength and pitch and the recovery of the object from hearing its sound are elegant and universal. The seminar will be an easy-going introduction to some of that.

First Meeting, January 22: Chladni and vibrating plates. Topics: Ernst Chladni, Napoleon, Sophie Germain, vibrating plates.

Second Meeting, January 29: Modes of oscillation: oscillating string, standing waves.

Third Meeting, February 5: Modes of oscillation for geometrix shapes, sound in MATLAB, and more sound in MATLAB.

Fourth Meeting, February 12 Modes of black holes, guest presentation by Oran Gannot.

Fifth Meeting, February 19 sound in MATLAB, Fourier transform.

Sixth Meeting, February 26 Fourier transform in MATLAB, Some maths.

Seventh Meeting, March 5 Uncertainty principle, more on Fourier transform in matlab.

Eigth Meeting, March 12 More of the same (since we have not finished...)

Ninth Meeting, March 19 Fast Fourier transform

Tenth Meeting, April 2 Graphene and oscillations of wave functions -- guest presentation by Minjae Lee.

Eleventh Meeting, April 9 More on the Fourier transform

Twelfth Meeting, April 16 Polarized light, experimenting with polarizers: noncommutativity