Baylor to Host Astronomy, Mathematics Lecture

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Dr. David Sattinger, an internationally known mathematician, will present a two-part lecture on astronomy and mathematics Wednesday, April 21, and Friday, April 23 in room 344 of the Sid Richardson building on the Baylor University campus. The titles of each lecture are "Naked Histronomy: What Did Astronomers Know Before The Telescope And When Did They Know It?"
The events, which are free and open to the public, will begin with the lecture on Wednesday, April 21 at 4 p.m. The first part will focus on the history of modern astronomy, including the discoveries by the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Greek astronomers Hipparchus and Aristarchus.
The second part of the lecture will be held Friday, April 23 at 3:30 p.m. Sattinger will discuss the scientific contributions of Nicolaus Copernicus's "The Copernican Hypothesis," Tycho Brahe's observations of the sun and planets, and Johannes Kepler's three fundamental laws of planetary motion, which guided Isaac Newton to the inverse square law of gravity.
Sattinger has served as a professor at the University of Minnesota, Yale University and Utah State University. He has written more than 100 research papers in various areas of pure and applied mathematics, including ordinary and partial differential equations, differential geometry, dynamical systems, fluid mechanics, Lie groups and operator theory.
A reception will be held prior to the lecture in room 340 of the Sid Richardson Building at 3 p.m.
For more information, contact the Baylor department of mathematics at (254) 710-3561.
by Lillyan Baker, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805