Full house at the Bonn Physics Colloquium: Grant Sanderson talks about where Physics and Math collide
© Lidia Bazenova
On Friday, November 17, 2023, the University of Bonn had the enormous pleasure of hosting Grant Sanderson, author of the mathematics youtube channel 3blue1brown in the Bonn Physics Colloquium following a suggestion by the student council.
Grant Sanderson was born in Utah and studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Stanford University. After graduation he transitioned into an increasingly exposed role as a mathematics educator using animations and a unique visual approach to conveying concepts from higher mathematics. His Youtube videos are now famous for making difficult things accessible and for highlighting the fascination in math, awarding him an audience of over 5.5 million subscribers.
© Lidia Bazenova
In the Bonn Physics Colloquium, Grant Sanderson explained the connection between a simple problem of colliding blocks in a frictionless setting with the mathematics of the circle and the digits of pi emerging from the number of collisions. In the second half of the talk he revealed that the same principles are at play in Grover’s quantum search algorithm.
The talk was attended by a huge audience of students, staff and faculty in the physics department’s biggest venue: the Wolfgang Paul Hörsaal. The crowd was so big that many had to evacuate the lecture hall before the talk started and move to neighboring rooms, HS I of Physicalisches Institut, HS IAP and the IAP seminar room, to follow an impromptu live stream. In total, more than 1000 people listened to the Colloquium.
© Lidia Bazenova
After the talk, a Q&A session and a coffee break in the foyer of the lecture hall allowed for direct interaction with the speaker, sparking long discussions of groups of students with Grant Sanderson. To enable encounters in different settings, the Physics Colloquium was surrounded by a “mathematical salon” on Thursday evening, and a panel discussion at the mathematics department on Friday evening, both events where sold out.