New York, NY 10010
USA
“The Perfect Nature of the Number Six”
Wednesday, February 13
6:00 – 7:00 pm
National Museum of Mathematics
11 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10010
In celebration of MoMath’s sixth birthday, Manjul Bhargava, one of the nation’s foremost mathematicians and inaugural Distinguished Visiting Professor at MoMath, will host an interactive evening and special math-inspired magic show to illuminate the mysterious properties of the number six on Wednesday, February 13 at 6pm at MoMath. Dr. Bhargava will dive deep into the number’s significance in human and natural history, mathematics, science, art, and magic, topping off the evening with an astounding magic performance (a skilled amateur magician, Dr. Bhargava, teaches a course on math and magic at Princeton University).
Dr. Bhargava has received many top honors and awards, including the prestigious Fields Medal—the highest award in the field of mathematics for outstanding mathematical —and was named one of Popular Science Magazine’s “Brilliant 10” in 2002.
Six has been considered a number of mystical significance since ancient times. The Pythagoreans considered the number to be “perfect” because of its remarkable number-theoretic properties. The number six also plays an extremely important role in nature; for example, bees have long considered six to be the perfect number of sides for each cell of their honeycomb – and for good reason! In art too, the use of six-fold symmetry is a technique of the highest importance. In this interactive session, Dr. Bhargava will give a tour through some of these remarkable properties of the number six, and end by teaching some nontrivial magic tricks that make use of these properties — all in celebration of MoMath’s sixth birthday!
