BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Maths problems in Engineering - handling infinity - Dr Hugh Hunt (
 Engineering Department)
DTSTART:20131028T203000Z
DTEND:20131028T213000Z
UID:TALK47600@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mary Fortune
DESCRIPTION:I am an engineer who uses a lot of maths.  One of the difficul
 ties I encounter regularly is dealing with zero and infinity\, because the
 se are abstract concepts (nothing in the real world is infinite\, and noth
 ing that exists is zero).  Mathematical models are comfortable with zero a
 nd infinity\, for instance Hooke's law for springs - the spring can extend
  to infinity\, and the maths says that a bouncing ball will bounce an infi
 nite number of times before stopping. As for zero\, an infinite wire of fi
 nite mass has zero width. But there is more. Can we assume that a rail (on
  a train track) is infinitely long?  This is a useful assumption for sound
  radiation. What about a power cable between its supports - can that be th
 ought of as infinite? A lot hinges on the answers to the integral over sin
  and cos from 0 to infinity\, which are 1 and 0 respectively. An engineer 
 can prove these results very simply.
LOCATION:Winstanley Lecture Theatre\, Trinity College
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR