An Example...
When I walked in Williams Hall this morning there was a sign that read: Welcome to the International Conference on Vertex Operator Algebras and Related Areas:
A Conference to Mark the Occasion of Geoffrey Mason's 60th Birthday. For the next two hours I tried to imagine what vertex operator algebras were.
On my way out of the building I stopped to copy the title onto a piece of scrap paper because I was pretty sure that in order to find out what it meant I would need those terms exactly, and I was also pretty sure I wouldn't remember them exactly.*
My first search landed me on ISU's math department's homepage which provided a program that told me nothing other than the fact that it is studied by people in Croatia, Japan, and China among other countries.
Wikipedia, however, tells me that vertex operator algebra is
an algebraic structure that plays an important role in conformal field theory and related areas of physics. They have proven useful in purely mathematical contexts such as monstrous moonshine and the geometric Langlands correspondence.Okay, so I don't know that I would go so far as to say that I understand it, but I do know that Geoffry Mason is an important guy in the area and that the only Geoffry Mason that wikipedia lists is a dead bobsledder.
Therefore, I now know something that wikipedia does not know and have some idea what vertex operator algebra is. If only I could imagine how this knowledge endeavor might help me in life, it would have been a truly useful experience.
*While writing this down, a group of mathematicians came down the hall and looked at me while I was writing and saying outloud, "I know what algebra is." They didn't laugh; they just looked confused. I'm not sure if they were confused because they couldn't imagine why a person would copy down the title of the conference on the back of a grocery receipt or confused because they couldn't imagine someone who didn't know what they were talking about.
2 comments:
Is THAT what was going on in the building today? Wow.
I need there were A LOT of math people in the building, but seriously when wikipedia can't explain things in terms I can understand beyond the first sentence...yeesh. I wonder what the average IQ in the building was today.
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