On the afternoon of Sept. 24, 2015, the 33rd SUSTC Lecture wasconducted in the lecture hall of the first research building. Li Shangzhi,Professor of Beijing University of Aeronautics, brought the students andteachers of SUSTC a wonderful lecture titled “Math loves us”. Tang Tao, vice-president of SUSTC hostedthe lecture.

Site of the lecture

Professor Li Shangzhi is one of the 18 doctors after the CulturalRevolution and also is one of the first batch national teaching masters. Heworks on the study of algebra, especially on group theory, and also hasoutstanding achievements on teaching. He is the teacher that hosts mostnational excellent courses in Chinese colleges and universities.

Professor Li Shangzhi

All seats are occupied for the lecture hall of more than 400 people; atthe beginning of the lecture, professor Li Shangzhi introduced the theme ofthis lecture: illustrate that math loves us by using vivid facts. He citedvarious authorities, from the light of Buddha from Mount Emei to continuousfunction; from the harmony of musical scale to twelve-tone equal temperamentand Pythagorean tuning, at last, he spoke of superposition of sine wave.

Professor LiShangzhi also vividly introduced the course Calculus Enlightenment with colorfulmetaphor such as “walk with daintysteps”, “Give him an inch and he will take a yard”, “once and for all”, “do assomeone else has done”; interesting poetries andvisual examples make the cold mathematical questionssimple and easy to approach.

Professor Li Shangzhi “Playing Rubik’scube”

Professor LiShangzhi played Rubik’s cube at the lecture; he told us with his actions thatmath not only exists in figures, but also in Rubik’s cube and even ineverywhere of our life.

At the ending ofthe lecture, Professor Li Shangzhi proposed a question: study the boundary oflight and shade on the wall from the aspect of math. Students were eager to saytheir opinions and expressed their different views. This math question inreality let them know that you will find many wonderful things that ignored byus if you look at the world with the view of math.

 Professor Li Shangzhi signed and sent books to students

In the interactive link of the lecture, students actively asked theirquestions and professor Li Shangzhi answered them carefully. After thecompletion of the lecture, some students still stayed at the lecture hall andasked for signature of Professor Li Shangzhi and took photos with him.

Contribution: Studentnews agency of SUSTC (prepared)