About this Event
📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email
🧠 Lecture: "What Is a Number? A History of a (Seemingly) Simple Idea"
🎤 Speaker: Andy Schultz
Join us for a fascinating evening as Professor Andy Schultz explores one of the most fundamental yet surprisingly complex ideas in mathematics: the number.
Mathematics is celebrated for its power to describe and explain our world, but this usefulness can sometimes narrow how we think about the subject. Drawing on key moments in mathematical history, Professor Schultz will trace how our understanding of numbers has evolved—from simple counting to abstract structures that shape modern science and technology.
What exactly is a number? Are there fixed rules it must obey, and who decides those rules? How have changing perspectives on numbers led not only to theoretical breakthroughs, but also to unexpected practical advances?
Andy Schultz is a Professor of Mathematics at Wellesley College and has been teaching and researching for nearly 25 years, with work spanning Galois theory, algebraic combinatorics, and the mathematics of voting.
Come challenge your assumptions about something you use every day but rarely stop to question.
Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌
Agenda
6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.
6:55 PM – Host introduction
7:00 PM – Lecture begins
7:45 PM – Audience Q&A
8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round
8:30 PM – Wrap up.
Event venue & nearby stays
Somerville, United States
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