SMS scnews item created by Gareth White at Tue 7 Apr 2009 0735
Type: Seminar
Distribution: World
Expiry: 8 Apr 2009
Calendar1: 8 Apr 2009 1300-1400
CalLoc1: Carslaw 452
Auth: garethw@asti.maths.usyd.edu.au

# SUMS Meeting: Tang -- Kaleidoscopes and Tessellations

Hello SUMS members,

Thanks to all those who turned up to Duncan’s talk on gender-challenged
fish. It was great to see some biologists show up as well (how on Earth did
they know about the talk????). This week we have a talk by somebody that
I’ve known for a very long time, Robert Tang, on Kaleidoscopes and
Tessellations:

"A kaleidoscope is tube consisting of mirrors creating beautiful and highly
symmetrical patterns. A three-mirror model yields a tiling of the plane by
triangles with reflective symmetry about any edge of any triangle. We will
classify the possible tilings of the Euclidean plane arising in this manner.
These symmetries are realisations of the Euclidean triangle groups.

We will then extend our investigation to such triangular tilings of the
surface of the sphere and the hyperbolic plane and their respective triangle
groups."

Also, the SUMS Cake Bake will be held in approximately 3 weeks time, on
FRIDAY, April 24 (time to be determined later, likely 1-2pm). At a Cake
Bake, people bake cakes (really????) beforehand, and bring them to uni. They
will then be judged in 2 categories: Best Tasting, and Most Interesting
Mathematical Reference. Last year we had an AWESOME cake of a Casio
Calculator that won both categories. Each category winner will win a prize.
Then, after judging, the participants and audience eat the cakes, and a
jolly good time is had by all. Hopefully you all now know what a Cake Bake
is now, I will be providing more details in the next email though, if you
are still confused.

In any case, I hope to see you on Wednesday!

Talk: Kaleidoscopes and Tessellations
Speaker: Robert Tang
Location: Carslaw 452
Date/Time: Wednesday April 8, 1-2pm

SUMS President

“Hamilton contributed over fifty per cent to the proof of the Poincaré
conjecture; the Russian, Perelman, about twenty-five per cent; and the
Chinese, Yau, Zhu, and Cao et al., about thirty per cent.” - Yang Le


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