The I. A. and Fannie R. Barnett Lecture Series

The Pythagorean theorem, dating back to before 500 BC, gives a formula for computing the Euclidean distance between two points. It is simply astounding that a concept so simple and classical has continued to fascinate mathematicians over the ages, and remains a tantalizing source of open problems to this day.
Given a set E, its distance set consists of numbers representing distances between points of E. If E is large, how large is its distance set? How does the structure of a set influence the structure of distances in the set? Such questions play an important role in many areas of mathematics and beyond. The talk will survey a few research problems associated with Euclidean distances between points and discuss recent breakthroughs in some of them.
The presentation is intended to be an introduction to a vibrant research area; no advanced mathematical background will be assumed.

Refreshments will be provided in the Math Department Faculty Lounce (4118 French Hall West) from 3:15-3:45pm preceding the lecture.