12 questions · 6 almanac · 0 findings

Differential Geometry

Geometry using calculus, foundational to relativity and manifolds.

Almanac A Soap Film Proves Its Own Theorem
  • What contribution did Lars Ahlfors make to the theory of conformal mappings and complex analysis?
  • What is the Plateau problem, and how did Jesse Douglas solve it?
  • Why does a soap film naturally form a surface of minimal area across a wire loop?
Almanac A Proof Posted, Then Silence
  • How did Grigori Perelman use Ricci flow and a surgery procedure to overcome the obstacle that had stopped Richard Hamilton?
Almanac The Ponytail Shape Equation
  • What physical factors does the Ponytail Shape Equation combine to predict the shape of a swaying ponytail?
  • Why does the statistical curliness of individual hair fibres matter for predicting overall ponytail geometry?
  • How does the physics of hair bundles under tension relate to problems in composite materials and soft robotics?
Almanac Eighty Years, Then a Woman Won
  • What did Maryam Mirzakhani's work on Riemann surfaces and moduli spaces actually establish?
  • How did Martin Hairer's theory of regularity structures give rigorous meaning to equations physicists already used informally?