The World Needs Soft, Squishy Robots

If you bake, you can appreciate math’s transformative properties. Admiring the stackable potato chip is to admire a hyperbolic sheet. Find out why there’s no need to fear math - you just need to think outside the cuboid. Also, how nature’s geometric shapes inspire the next generation of squishy robots and an argument for radically overhauling math class. The end point of these common factors is acute show that’s as fun as eating Pi.

Guests:

• Eugenia Cheng – Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, tenured at the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sheffield, and author of “How to Bake Pi”
• Shankar Venkataramani – Professor of math at the University of Arizona
• Steven Strogatz – Professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University and author of “Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe”
• Daniel Finkel – Mathematician and founder and director of operations at “Math for Love”

Originally aired July 15, 2019

Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake

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