Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science Colloquium

 Title: Are you smarter than a 19th century mathematician? Speaker: Timothy A. Sipka Associate Professor Mathematics and Computer Science Alma College Alma, Michigan Abstract: The Four Color Theorem is a simple and believable statement: at most four colors are needed to color any map drawn in the plane or on a sphere so that no two regions sharing a boundary receive the same color. It might be surprising to find out that mathematicians searched for a proof of this statement for over a century until finally finding one in 1976. In this talk, we'll consider the "proof" given by Alfred Kempe, a proof published in 1879 and thought to be correct until an error was found in 1890. You're invited to look carefully at Kempe's proof and see if you can do what many 19th century mathematicians could not do—find the flaw. Location: Palenske 227 Date: 10/21/2010 Time: 3:10

@abstract{MCS:Colloquium:TimothyASipka:2010:10:21,
author  = "{Timothy A. Sipka}",
title   = "{Are you smarter than a 19th century mathematician?}",
address = "{Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science Colloquium}",
month   = "{21 October}",
year    = "{2010}"
}