| |
Hilbert's Fourth Problem
| Prev | Next | articles |
Posted by Michael Gage, 10/23/02 at 3:42:20 PM.
Title: One hundred years of Hilbert's fourth problem.
Prof. Juan Carlos Alvarez,
Polytechnic University of New York
Time: 3:00pm -- 4:00pm
Date: Friday, October 25, 2002
Hylan 1106B
This talk may be of interest to some of you majoring in math. Prof. Alvarez is a very good speaker. (More details.)
"Construct and study the geometries in which the straight line segment is the shortest connection between two points." This leads to Minkowski geometries, Hilbert geometries and eventually to the relation between metric and symplectic geometry.
You can find Prof. Alvarez's paper on this subject here in the Finsler Geometry Newsletter
From the introduction:
We will start with the examples given by Minkowski and Hilbert of metrics where the shortest connection between two points is a line segment, and proceed to the constructions of Busemann and Ambartzumian which together give the most elegant and natural solution to the problem.
.....
An effort has been made to make the paper partly accessible to undergraduate students and mathematically minded readers from other disciplines.
| Prev | Next | articles |