History of Mathematics and Flight

A day of talks about the history of mathematics and flight. Flight will be broadly conceived to cover the flight of man-made objects and animals, flight formation, navigation and control.

The day will include a free tour of the Concorde flight deck. Registration link is at the bottom of the page. 

Provisional Programme:

Programme and abstracts 170622.pdf

10.00 Registration

10.10 Welcome

10.15 Kate Hindle (St Andrews): D'Arcy Thompson and flight

10.35 Concorde Flight Deck tour followed by Coffee

11.30 Jane Wess (Independent): Benjamin Robins: Elegant Mathematics Versus Experimental Inconvenience?

12.10 Deborah Kent (St Andrews): A champion’s counterexample? PG Tait and the flight of a golf ball

12.50 Lunch Break (lunch not provided, but there is a café and a picnic area in the Runway Visitor Park)

14.00 Isobel Falconer (St Andrews): James Bell Pettigrew: reasoning by precise drawing?

14.20 Jim Boyd (Essex), Gareth Roberts (Bangor) and Alwyn Owens (Bangor): Stability in Theory, in the Laboratory and in the Air: William Ellis Williams’ Campaign for Proof Positive (1904-1914)

15.00 Tea

15.30 Tony Royle (Open): When the Numbers Don’t Add Up!

16.30 Finish

Registration