Instabilities and Catastrophes

with Michael Thompson

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When things become unstable, they often collapse and go bang. In the natural world, a massive cold star can collapse to form a black hole in space. During the lecture we shall watch the dramatic collapse of the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge as men and vehicles struggle to get off.

Nearer to home we will see how the Millennium Bridge decided to wobble when people first walked on it. Concepts of stability and instability are indeed central to all the mathematical sciences. With numerous experimental demonstrations, this informal talk gives an overview of a wide variety of instability phenomena.

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