UCD School of Mathematics & Statistics

6 results

Since the population is finite, and the vast majority of people recover, the graph of the number of infected people is bell-shaped, growing to a maximum and then declining
Coronavirus: What does exponential growth mean?

In its initial stages, the coronavirus pandemic grew at an exponential rate. What does this mean? The number of infected people in a country is growin(...)

The 200th anniversary of the birth of William Rowan Hamilton, in 2005: then minister for state Noel Treacey with TDs Joe Costello and the late Tony Gregory and members of the Cabra Community Centre Project on their way to Broombridge for the unveiling of a plaque.
The many modern uses of quaternions

The story of William Rowan Hamilton’s discovery of new four-dimensional numbers called quaternions is familiar. The solution of a problem that had bot(...)

An undated portrait of German mathematician Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866). Riemann established the foundations of modern differential geometry and, in 1859, formulated the hypothesis that bears his name. Photograph: Bettmann/Getty Images
Explainer: Has Michael Atiyah conquered the Everest of mathematics?
  • World
  • September 24, 2018, 15:13

A major mathematical result has been announced by British-Lebanese mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah. In a talk at the 6th Heidelberg Laureate Forum in(...)

You have probably noticed the little rectangles in the camera of your smartphone; this is face detection in action.
Automatic face recognition: how it works

As you pass through an airport, you are photographed several times by security systems. Face recognition systems can identify you by comparing your di(...)

Joseph Fourier helped solve many of the equations of physics.
Fourier’s wonderful idea: Breaking complex signals into simple pieces

Joseph Fourier, born just 250 years ago, introduced a wonderful idea that revolutionised science and mathematics: any function or signal can be broken(...)

The flu vaccine: Vaccination strategies are pursued with a view to ensuring cases do not increase exponentially
Stemming the spread of epidemics

We are reminded each year to get vaccinated against the influenza virus. The severity of the annual outbreak is not known with certainty in advance, b(...)