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Friday 11:30 a.m.–noon

Experimental pure mathematics using Sage

Viviane Pons

Audience level:
Novice
Category:
Science

Description

Pure mathematics is not always big formulas written on endless notebooks, it can also be hidden behind python code. In combinatorics, we study classical computer science objects like trees or graphs with a mathematical perspective. This talk aims to show how computer exploration and experimentation can be used to discover and prove new mathematical results.

Abstract

Why would you need to experiment if it's pure mathematics? Don't you just spend your whole day writing down complicated computations using weird symbols and popping theorems out of your head? This talk is here to show you that pure mathematics is not always like this. We're going to explore some combinatorics questions like "how many binary trees of size 42 are there?" or "What does a random binary tree of size 1000 looks like?" and see how computer exploration plays an essential role in finding and proving new results. Doing so, we'll see what kind of code and structure we use and understand the aim of pure mathematical programming. All examples will be written in python using the mathematical software Sage. So this is also an occasion to discover about Sage through actual research based examples and demo. No previous Sage or mathematical knowledge is needed.
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