NU Splash Biography

“I walk a kilometer to school every day.” “There are 91 million miles between the earth and the sun.” “My pinky toe is about half an inch.” We learn about “length” by the time we’re toddlers. But did you know these notions—“a kilometer”, “91 million miles”, “half an inch”—aren’t consistently defined? They actually lead to the existence of objects which are both 1 meter long and 2 meters long at the same time… or objects which have both no length and infinite length! In this class we’ll go over all the results which made me think “Nah, you playin” in my math classes. As someone who was bored to death by math in high school, my goal is to show you math is not just “Find the derivative of $$\cos(e^x) + \log(\tan(x))$$” (literally no one cares + make a computer do it) but it is instead beautiful, creative, and at times amazingly counter-intuitive. For those who love math, and especially those who don’t, all are welcome!