View Post

Turing the Universe

In Mathematics by Brian Koberlein2 Comments

My research area is computational astrophysics. This means I use computers to analyze astronomical data or model astrophysical systems. Most of my work is done through an application known as Mathematica, which is a powerful computational program. Like any application, Mathematica has advantages and disadvantages, but it has one property that is absolutely essential: it is Turing complete.

View Post

Cosmic Pi

In Mathematics by Brian Koberlein3 Comments

Today is March 14, which many celebrate as Pi Day since the month and day mark 3.14, which is approximately pi.It is also Albert Einstein’s birthday, so it seems fitting to ask whether π can exist in a universe as Einstein described it. Just for fun, I’m going to outline why the answer is no.