Terence Tao: The Cosmic Distance Ladder, UCLA

AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics: Terence Tao is UCLA's Collins Professor of Mathematics, and the first UCLA professor to win the prestigious Fields Medal. Less than a month after winning the Fields Medal, Tao was named a MacArthur Fellow. The following month, Tao was named one of "The Brilliant 10" scientists by Popular Science magazine, which called him "Math's Great Uniter" and said that "to Tao, the traditional boundaries between different mathematical fields don't seem to exist." Tao's AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics is titled "The Cosmic Distance Ladder."

The American Mathematical Society (AMS) sponsors a series of public lectures in mathematics entitled The AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics. The lectures began in 2005, to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Einstein's annus mirabilis. They are given annually at one of the Society's eight sectional meetings. The year 1905 marked the publication by Albert Einstein in Germany of three fundamental papers that changed the course of twentieth-century physics. Einstein later moved to the United States, where he became a founding member of the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.


Sponsored by the American Mathematical Society

Hosted by the UCLA Department of Mathematics, The Philip C. Curtis Jr. Center for Mathematics and Teaching and the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences. Additional support provided by the UCLA Chancellor's Office.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• uclachannel
• UCLA
• professor
• terence
• tao
• AMS
• Einstein
• cosmic
• distance
• ladder
• fields
• medal
• science

[nospindoctor]

Starts @5:45

[bparramosqueda]

Was great!! He really can communicate this to every one!

[oker59]

@oker59

Newton didn't derive his inverse square law from keplers laws; he derived Kepler's laws from his inverse square law; it's the seminal problem to solve in classical mechanics before you get into say chemistry, electromagnetism and so on.

[oker59]

@oker59

He(Terrence) calls them peasants!(those who helped Brahe on his astronomical observatory island). Carl Sagan called them "hangers ons"! There's pictures that show that one of them was indeed a midget. Tycho Brahe's 'helpers' were indeed 'characters.'

[oker59]

the history of the Gnomon is deeper than Tao shows here(I'd like to think he knows this).

[TheElephantOpera]

@openuniverse2003 Dude, he's just telling a story, not making an advanced technical talk. And fyi, Dr. Tao is considered one of the greatest living mathematicians. You don't need to lock yourself in an ivory tower to be a great mind. Some people also enjoy educating others.

[jhamien920]

This is great. Just what I was looking for.

[DrGoulu]

Tao is certainly a very talented mathematician, but definitely not a good communicator. Wish this very interesting topic was presented by someone like Brian Cox...

[cmoeinc]

I am really impressed with that. Thank you for showing us that.

[powerfulwords]

Best lecture I've seen in some time - so clear and helpful in understanding the history & development in understanding distances in space. Thank you!

[openuniverse2003]

@Fand421 He's just regurgitating stuff that's been known for decades/centuries. Big deal, he's made a couple of "cute" discoveries, thanks to all the support he's gotten from his PhD advisors, etc. Let's see if he's as good as Paul Erdos, or Einstein. I DOUBT IT. This guy's a robot-pimp, I'm betting he goes the "Michio Kaku" route soon enough, we'll be seeing him on Discovery Channel documentaries, regurgitating crap that's been known for centuries. Just another flash in the pan geek loser.

[Fand421]

@openuniverse2003 what kind of idiotic statement is this...he already has done great work. Just look it up for yourself.