Home
News
Podcasts
Browse Videos
21st Century Science
Video Wall
About us
Features
CUSP-BlueSci
CU Science Festival
The BA
Darwin College
Nature Live
Spoken Word
Teacher's TV
Mill. Maths Project


Image

Get Media:

 View Online

 Download

Love it? Hate it? Leave feedback!

Instabilities and Catastrophes

with Michael Thompson

Get Media:  View Online   Download 

When things become unstable, they often collapse and go bang. In the natural world, a massive cold star can collapse to form a black hole in space. During the lecture we shall watch the dramatic collapse of the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge as men and vehicles struggle to get off.

Nearer to home we will see how the Millennium Bridge decided to wobble when people first walked on it. Concepts of stability and instability are indeed central to all the mathematical sciences. With numerous experimental demonstrations, this informal talk gives an overview of a wide variety of instability phenomena.

Links:


Michael Thompson's lecture on Instabilities and Catastrophes
Michael Thompson's new lecture on Chaos and Fractals (in two parts)
Michael Thompson's lecture on DNA

Share this item.

Discover related items on the Cambridge University Media Player:
From the same publisher: Millennium Mathematics Project,
the same type: lecture,
the same subject: M-KS4,
or search for tags:
maths physics .


                                        Darwin Lecture Series: Identity; Podcasts           Darwin Lecture Series: Identity; Podcasts           Darwin Lecture Series: Identity; Podcasts