Monday 25th February 2019
Speaker: Dr Ingo Dierking, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Manchester.
We are all familiar with 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional geometric objects like lines, circles, triangles, cubes or spheres, and their use in the description of many simple structures such as streets, football fields, houses or cars. But how would you describe a cloud, the roots of a tree, a fern, snowflakes, the artery and capillary system of humans or equally complicated objects? In the late 1970s and 1980s, some mathematics was formulated that today is known as fractal geometry. It describes in simple terms the complex structures observed in nature as well as in mathematics.
I will demonstrate with our own work that fractal geometry can be used to model a variety of problems, such as the spread of forest fires, urban growth, or epidemics.