What is the practical value of mathematics for the average person? The speaker will illustrate the answer through surprising insights that explain aspects of real life, and puzzles and paradoxes that arise from the failure of human intuition.  The starting point will be a pair of dice.

See how mathematical reasoning can help us make sense out of these thought-provoking situations, and experience the surprising and fun nature of mathematics in the process. These insights were accumulated from over a year of mathematical introspection on topics of common interest, and several have been shared in features of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and FiveThirtyEight (part of ESPN). This is original work by mathematician Po-Shen Loh, whose professional research is in combinatorics and probability. He will also highlight the connections between this research and the real-life examples in this talk.

Free and open to the public – Pizza at 6:00PM prior to talk in lobby outside of auditorium.

https://www.math.dartmouth.edu/