[The,Commutator]

FIRST EDITION

The Macsoc Magazine: FEBRUARY 2010

Sponsored by: The Department of Mathematics and the IMA

Contents

2 [The , Commutator] February 2010

News2EditorialNewsFeatures

4Group theory12Finding Neptune

Discovery

An introduction to abstract algebra and a look atthe mathematics of the rubik’s cube.How Neptune was discovered to exist, its massand orbit calculated before it was observed

Word fromthe Editor

6Chaos theory

An introduction to a theory which reveals the de-terministic equations which govern the seeminglyrandom and probabilistic events.

Mathematics & People10Are men really better at mathsthan women?11Nazi Germany and MathematicsAssorted Articles13 Foundations of Mathematics14 Why study Mathematics?15 How to tile the sphere with dif-ferential equationsGames16 games and puzzles

Thank You

My first duty as editor is to thank allthose involved in the project. I have some-times been frustrated with the level of in-difference among undergraduates and Ihave to say that it has been very refreshingto meet and work with such a lively andproactive team here in Glasgow. This en-terprise has been built on their enthusiasmit is to them that I am the most grateful.I would also like to thank the GlasgowUniversity Department of Mathematicsand the Maclaurin Society for their fullsupport both in terms of time spent organ-ising and advising as well as their financialsupport. It is their financial support thathas allowed us to print the magazine infull colour with a professional finish.The Macsoc itself and by associationthis magazine, is funded by the The Insti-tute of Mathematics and its Applications(IMA) which is the UK's learned and pro-fessional society for mathematics and itsapplications. It promotes mathematics re-search, education and careers, and the useof mathematics in business, industry andcommerce.

A few words of thanks, a brief outline of what [The, Commutator]is about and then a definition of theCommutator.

Editor, Designer, Graphics

Carl Chaplin

Assistant Editors

Stuart AndrewAndrew Bestel

Those who were also activelyinvolved in the organisation

David HalfpennyEmma CumminSandy Black Fiona DohertyLouise OgdenPaul McFaddenMichael StringerNeil Fullarton Jaspal Puri

What’s it all about?

Our vision for the magazine is to have apublication that first and foremost commu-nicates ideas which have sparked an inter-est in the writers. With this both theunderstanding and the enthusiasm benefitsthe reader. Our aim is to create somethingwhich is both a Vista for first and secondyear students who are yet to decide onwhich disciplines will make up their de-gree and also for honors students to broaden their knowledge using the lecturecourses provided at Glasgow University asa foundation.The publication also serves to promotediscussion on all aspects of Mathematics beit sociological, psychological, philosophicalor historical. Mathematics has affectedeveryone’s lives both within and outwiththe department and so, although not cen-tral to mathematical research objectives,there are many areas of discussion should be of interest to us all.For the writers themselves we hope toprovides a platform for undergraduates to be involved in an extra curricular pursuitwhere they can develop skills outside of those that are offered as part of the under-graduate programme.

What is the commutator?

For an outline of group theory see thefollowing feature article. The commutatorof two elements of a group is de-noted by and is defined as follows:. An important feature of aGroup is commutativity, that is the extentto which . Of course we take forgranted that addition is always commuta-tive and that many of the multiplicativegroups we encounter day to day do not im-pose an order effect on our calculation. Thesavvy shopper would have to add to hiswhit the ability to position each item of hisweekly shop on the conveyor belt at the su-permarket check out in the cheapest possi- ble order in a world withoutcommutativity. As an undergraduate youwill encounter matrix multiplication as afirst example of a non-commutative groupoperation. However David Halfpenny pro-vides an example of the rubik’s cube in hisarticle on page 5. If you rotate some of thepieces about one axis and then perform arotation about a different axis the rubik’scube will end up in a different configura-tion to that achieved by performing thesame two rotations in reverse order, be-cause these two group elements which acton the cube do not commute with eachother in the Group.Taking the set of all commutators of agroup we find that each pair of elementsthat commute with each other are sent tothe identity element by their commutatorand we are left with the set of commutatorswhich don’t commute with each other. Tak-ing the subgroup which is generated bythis set tells us something about the extentto which that group commutes. This iscalled the derived subgroup and it is an im-portant tool in the understanding of thestructure of a group.It is with this that we go straight intoour first feature which starts with some basic group theory and goes on to demon-strate the application of group theory to theunderstanding of the rubiks cube.

Carl Chaplin

[ , ]:

a b a b ab

1 1

- -

ab ba

=[ , ]

a b

a b G

February 2010 [The , Commutator] 3

News

The

Faculty of Information & Mathe-matical Sciences

(FIMS) is soon to be re-placed by the

School of Mathematics andStatistics

under the new college struc-ture that will supersede the old facultystructure from 1st August 2010.The most notable affect for studentswill be the combining of the existingFIMS graduate school with that of the

Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineer-ing

and the

Faculty Physics and Astron-omy

. The existing faculty basedgraduate schools will form a singlegraduate school for the

College of Scienceand Engineering

.Students were informed of the Uni-versity wide changes by the Senior VicePrincipal and Deputy Vice ChancellorAndrea Nolan, together with the prom-ise of zero disruption while the changesare implemented.

“The needs of our students are central tothe activity of the University and the re-structure has not, and will not, alter that”

Undergraduate students from Au-gust will be awarded their degree bytheir college instead of their faculty butthere will be little change in their day today experiences.The main changes will be in the Uni-versity Financial structure which waspreviously comprised of ten budgets,corresponding to nine faculties and theUniversity Services. The new structurewill be five larger budgets, correspon-ding to four colleges and UniversityServices. The University has risen towithin the top 20 in the UK rankingsand within the top 100 in the worldrankings. To carry on this trend Glas-gow needs to respond to the increase indemand for inter-disciplinary academicresearch and this restructuring of Uni-versity finances is designed to facilitatethis. Currently research over faculty boundaries requires multiple researchgrants and so there is unnecessary re-sistance and less coordination than can be expected from a single college re-search fund. Fewer budgets also allowfor greater efficiency as there should befewer transaction and co-ordinationcosts and delays. The university as awhole expects to be more agile in its re-sponse to external opportunities andthreats, while larger budgets shouldmake larger investments more feasible.For those undergraduates who areplanning a future in academic research,the benefits of the restructuring will beimmediately apparent as heads of col-leges will have larger budgets and moreadministrative support. The Univer-sity’s standings in both the UK and theWorld rankings should reflect any in-crease in the volume or quality of re-search while the College of Science andEngineering should hold more weightthan the individual faculties it replaces.As such all undergraduates should feelan increase in the benefit that graduat-ing from Glasgow University will bring.

Carl Chaplin

University Restructuring and You!