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  • News
  • Groups
    • Calendar
    • Group Directory
    • 1st Monday Meetings
    • Groups A-B >
      • Antiques and Collectables
      • Archaeology
      • Architecture Appreciation
      • Art
      • Art - Costume Life & Portraiture
      • Backgammon
      • Badminton
      • Beer & Cider Appreciation
      • Birdwatching
      • Bobbin Lace Making
      • Booktalk
      • Bridge
      • BSL
    • Groups C-C >
      • Calligraphy
      • Canasta
      • Card Games for Fun
      • Chess >
        • All that Chess
      • Coffee Club
      • Coffee/Social Broadmayne
      • Computing
      • Country Walks >
        • Country Walks - Tuesday
        • Country Walks - Thursday
        • Country Walks - Friday
      • Craftastic
      • Creative Writing 1
      • Creative Writing 2
      • Crosswords
    • Groups D-G >
      • Dining Group
      • Early Music - Playing
      • Easy Riders
      • Embroidery and Stitching
      • Family History
      • Folk Music
      • French Beginners
      • French Conversation
      • French Intermediate
      • Gardening
      • Geology
      • German Language
    • Groups H-K >
      • History
      • History of Art >
        • History of Art Blog
      • Italian Language Studies
      • Jazz and Blues
      • Kings Cribbage
    • Groups L-O >
      • Latin
      • Local History
      • Mah-Jong (Western)
      • Mah-Jong (BMJA Rules)
      • Maths and Physics
      • Meditation
      • Members On Their Own
      • Music Appreciation
    • Groups P-Q >
      • Petanque
      • Philosophy
      • Photography
      • Pickleball
      • Pins and Needles
      • Play Reading 1
      • Play Reading 2
      • Poetry Appreciation
      • Quiz
    • Groups R-S >
      • Reading Crime and Thrillers
      • Reading for Pleasure 1
      • Reading For Pleasure 3
      • Reading 4
      • Rummikub
      • Russian Beginners
      • Science & Technology
      • Scottish Country Dancing
      • Scrabble
      • Singing for Pleasure
      • Skittles
      • Spanish Conversation
      • Stamp Collecting
    • Groups T-Z >
      • Table Tennis
      • Theatre Visits
      • Topical Issues
      • Travel Tales
      • Trips and Outings
      • Weaving Group
      • Wellbeing
      • Wildlife
      • Worldviews
  • u3a+
    • u3a online
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    • u3a Communities
  • How to
    • Join Dorchester u3a
    • Renew Membership
    • Join a Group
    • Find Meeting Places
    • Change your details
    • For Group Leaders >
      • Beacon Quick Reference
      • The Group Leader Role >
        • Overview
        • Running an Established Group
        • Taking over an existing GL role
        • Starting a new group
        • Refreshing an existing group
      • Group Leader checklists >
        • For every meeting
        • For every term
        • First use of venue
      • change this website
      • Borrow Equipment
      • Forms
      • Beacon Access
  • About Us
    • Contacts
    • Purpose and Principles
    • Organisation
    • Communications
    • Constitution
    • Policies >
      • Member Code of Conduct
      • Trustee Code of Conduct
      • Data Protection Policy
      • Privacy Policy
      • Safeguarding Policy
      • Complaints Procedure
      • Disciplinary Procedure
    • Annual General Meeting >
      • 2026 >
        • AGM Notice
      • 2025 >
        • AGM Notice
        • Minutes
      • 2024 >
        • AGM Notice
        • Minutes
      • 2023 >
        • AGM Notice
        • AGM Pre-reading
        • Minutes
      • 2022
    • Newsletter Archive
  • Just Useful
    • SCAM Advice
    • Free online books, magazines and newspapers
    • Digital Help
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    • Learning Resources

Maths and Physics

Picture
Equation of the Month - Geometric Brownian motion: This equation can used to describe the dynamics of a share price, and is one of the assumptions used in the Black-Scholes options pricing model.

Sep 9
John Ibbitson: Brownian Motion, where Einstein meets Stochastic Calculus
Oct 8
Dave Waymont: Areas, Volumes, and Integrals
Very basic intuition about areas and volumes can lead to astounding facts about integration...
Nov 12
Stephen Walters: The Physics of a Reaction Ferry
The schedule may change, so please check again closer to the date

The Maths and Physics Group meets on the ​​2nd Wednesday of the month in the Lower Classroom at the Holy Trinity Parish Centre (which is here) from 9.30 am until 10.45 am. Most meetings consist of one of our members giving a talk on a subject of their choice, but we are open to suggestions. ​There is also a WhatsApp group for people to ask each other questions, or to point out interesting news articles or books they've read.
​​​New members are very welcome. You don't need to be Einstein be a member! You just need to be interested in maths or physics (or engineering, technology, astronomy ... ). Contact [email protected] for further information.

Previous Talks

Particles and Fields
The Spheromak
​Magnetohydrodynamics
​Gauge Theories
​Oliver Heaviside
How to multiply BIG numbers
Video: Time keeping at the NPL
​A Discussion in the Philosophy of Science
Projective Geometry
The Physics of Pens and Pencils
​Video: On the Origin of Time
The Theremin
Modern Monetary Theory
AC Circuits
​Leonhard Euler
Discussion: Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics
​Video: How geometry has affected Physics

Quantum Computing
Concepts Behind the Black-Scholes Formula
Quaternions and Octonions

Telescope Construction - a personal perspective
​Video: Prof Chris Clarkson Dark matter, dark energy etc 
Making a telescope that can't see stars
Playing with a Stirling Engine
Why do so many physicists go into financial services?
Bell's Inequalities and Aspect's entanglement experiment

Heat and Thermodynamics
Video: Geometry of Chaos
Sphere-packing in n-dimensions
Experiment: Determining the wavelength of a laser
Polynomials and (Aero) Planes
Radio Telescopes
​"Welcome to the Loxodrome" (!)
The Wonderful World of Non-dimensional Groups
​
Lastly, a bit of fun ...
​
The questions are best viewed on a desktop as they may contain pictures that cannot be scaled easily for a mobile.
Two new problems will appear next month.
Easier
Picture
Harder
Picture
Please make all the usual assumptions, and don't worry if you can't solve the problems! Solutions can be found in this pdf.
Go to Calendar
Page maintained by Dave Waymont
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