16/08/2021

Mathematics in the Theme of the Sea: Nachbin celebrates success.

Far beyond classrooms and laboratories, mathematics is present in our daily lives and is essential for our social interaction. But those who think that mathematics only comes into play when we go shopping, for example, are mistaken. The five episodes of the miniseries "Mathematics in the Theme of the Sea," conceived by researcher André Nachbin with the aim of popularizing the subject and showing that it is present in various aspects of everyday life, are now available on IMPA's YouTube channel .

“The goal was to popularize mathematics for a broad, non-specialized audience, in a context that is atypical for most. Throughout the episodes, I wrote in words, without equations, about problems where the use of mathematics is fundamental,” explains the IMPA researcher.

Using the sea as a theme to discuss waves in fluids and waves in general, the episodes explain phenomena such as tsunamis and the role of mathematics in preventing damage in these cases, as well as underwater dynamics. The final chapter studies a problem inspired by quantum mechanics based on lessons learned about the sea.

To create the miniseries, André Nachbin used his 25 years of experience as a researcher at IMPA in the area of fluid dynamics. He also has a collection of lectures on the subject aimed at students of different educational levels. The mathematician highlights two episodes in particular: “of the five, I would highlight the first and the last, considering the visualizations, but not only for that reason. The first one caught the audience by surprise and many people rushed to see it quickly. In the last one, I changed the subject to an unusual problem, with spectacular videos from a colleague at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).”

Launched in May, the project "Mathematics in the Theme of the Sea" has already had over six thousand views. The videos can be accessed through the playlist on Dissemination of Mathematics on IMPA's YouTube channel .