Speaker: Gilbert Strang (MIT)

Title: Linear Algebra - A Happy Chance to Apply Mathematics

Abstract: I believe that linear algebra is *the* most important subject in college mathematics. Isaac Newton would not agree! But he isn't teaching mathematics in the 21st century (and maybe he wasn't a great teacher, we will give him the benefit of the doubt). Newton preferred geometry, and today the laws of physics are usually expressed by differential equations. Calculus is wonderful: quite right. But the scope of science and engineering and management (and life) is now so much wider, and linear algebra has moved into a central place.