Polygons, Polyhedra, and String Theory
Ursula Whitcher
Associate Editor
Mathematics Reviews
American Mathematical Society
If you have a rubber band and a pegboard, how many polygons can you make that have only one peg in the center? The answer to this question is highly interesting to string theorists, who use shapes like these to write equations for the predicted "extra" dimensions of the universe. We'll talk about the way mathematicians use intuition from string theory to make mathematical discoveries.