The American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics announce that the theme for Mathematics Awareness Month 2005 is Mathematics and the Cosmos.
Mathematics is at the core of our attempts to understand the universe at every level from the most theoretical to the most mundane. Modern cosmology is based on the ideas of Riemann regarding the nature of space, along with the notion of curved spaces of three and more dimensions, adapted by Einstein to four-dimensional space time, and encapsulated in Einstein's fundamental insight that gravity is geometry. From this, and his justly famous field equations, Einstein deduced on theoretical grounds the bending of light as it passes a massive object, the precise amount of precession of Mercury's perihelion, the expansion of the universe, the existence of black holes, the behavior of binary stars, and the existence of gravitational waves, all of which led to experiments to confirm their validity.
In cases not subject to direct experimentation, other mathematical methods are vital for carrying out simulations of the motions within galaxies and star clusters, the collision of galaxies and black holes, and other large-scale gravitational interactions. At the level of the solar system, the mathematical methods initiated by Newton and continually elaborated over the ensuing centuries have explained or predicted the action of the tides, the bulge of the earth around the equator, the existence of previously unknown planets, the orbits and return times of comets, and just in the past decade, the existence of planets orbiting other stars.
In the realm of practical space exploration, mathematical techniques allow the planning of efficient trajectories to reach the moon, Mars and the outer planets, and the means to communicate with those satellites, both for navigation and for the encoding, compression, and transmission of images across many hundreds of millions of miles of space, as in the recent spectacular photographs from the Cassini mission to Saturn.
- Activities -View events held in celebration of the Mathematics Awareness Month 2005
See The General Assembly of Pennsylvania House Resolution No. 113 Session of 2005, introduced by Creighton, Clymer, Baker, Cappelli, Barrar, baldwin, Cawley, Corrigan, Bebko-Jones, Causer, Crahalla, Cruz, Daley, Dermody, deWeese, DiGirolamo, J. Evans, Fichter, Fleagle, Forcier, Freeman, Geist, George, Gingrich, Goodman, Grucela, Harhai, Hennessey, Herman, Hershey, Hess, Hickernell, Hutchinson, James, W. Keller, Kotik, Lederer, Leh, Major, Mann, Marsico, McIlhattan, Metcalfe, O'Neill, Pallone, Payne, Phillips, Pickett, Readshaw, Rohrer, Ross, Rubley, Sainato, Sather, Saylor, Scavello, Shaner, B. Smith, R. Stevenson, Sturla, thomas, Tigue, Turzai, Walko, Washington, Watson, Sheatley, Wilt, Wojnaroski, Youngblood, Zug, Gabig, Markoset, Preston, Kirkland, Browne, Fabrizio, Roberts, Killion, Pistella and Gillespie on march 1, 2005.