Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 14 minutes ago
Math Encounters: "Bouncing Around: The Language of Billiards in Polygons"
featuring Jayadev Athreya, Wednesday, February 12
How many ways can a billiard ball bounce around a polygonal table? This seemingly simple question opens the door to some surprisingly deep mathematics. It turns out we don’t know much about mathematical billiards in polygons, even though they are very simple models of Newtonian mechanics. Join Jayadev Athreya, Professor of Mathematics and the Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Washington, who will share some very new mathematics as we explore the intriguing dynamics at the intersection of geometry and motion.
Special introduction by Fields Medalist and Institute for Advanced Study mathematician Akshay Venkatesh.
Math Encounters is MoMath’s popular free public presentation series celebrating the spectacular world of mathematics. This program is funded by Simons Foundation International and administered by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division.
Math Encounters: "Bouncing Around: The Language of Billiards in Polygons"
featuring Jayadev Athreya, Wednesday, February 12
How many ways can a billiard ball bounce around a polygonal table? This seemingly simple question opens the door to some surprisingly deep mathematics. It turns out we don’t know much about mathematical billiards in polygons, even though they are very simple models of Newtonian mechanics. Join Jayadev Athreya, Professor of Mathematics and the Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Washington, who will share some very new mathematics as we explore the intriguing dynamics at the intersection of geometry and motion.
Special introduction by Fields Medalist and Institute for Advanced Study mathematician Akshay Venkatesh.
Math Encounters is MoMath’s popular free public presentation series celebrating the spectacular world of mathematics. This program is funded by Simons Foundation International and administered by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division.
