Answer by Hollis Williams for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic...
I would just say that very roughly speaking it's a subject where you are doing geometry and thinking about geometry, but you write about it formally like it is algebra and you use algebra (which can be...
View ArticleAnswer by Michael for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic geometry is?
One of the things engineers are very familiar with is integration. "What kind of substitution should I make to explicitly find antiderivative?" is a very natural question. And, you know, Algebraic...
View ArticleAnswer by J W for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic geometry is?
There are several good answers already so I cannot hope to add much. That said, another approach to reach engineers could be by the familiar subject of linear algebra, in particular, solving systems of...
View ArticleAnswer by Al-Amrani for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic geometry...
There is an answer by D. Mumford to biologists, valid also for engineers:Can one explain schemes to biologists, blog post (2014) (link).
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Answer by Joseph O'Rourke for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic...
This is along the lines suggested by @DonuArapura: "describe a problem [...] that is reasonably concrete and accessible, and go from there."Here is a problem an engineer would appreciate: Which bent...
View ArticleAnswer by forget this for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic...
I have had this conversation a few times. I warm them up by introducing the concept of abstract classification of objects: I explain how a mechanical arm which can rotate in a circle, and which has...
View ArticleAnswer by Timothy Chow for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic...
If you're just trying to communicate what algebraic geometry is, without trying to convince the engineer that it's worth studying, then one simple starting point is to recall the classification of...
View ArticleAnswer by Mark Wildon for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic...
I think a good explanation should give an idea of how algebraic geometry can make precise the idea of a generic point on an irreducible variety. One example I might try is Gerstenhaber's Theorem, that...
View ArticleAnswer by Rohit Chatterjee for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic...
I would start by showing them to how find rational points on a conic. If you have a rational point then you can draw lines and find more. They will be comfortable with the geometric aspect and then you...
View ArticleAnswer by Steven Landsburg for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic...
In conversations like this, I usually lead with a concrete example of a hard problem. Complete intersections seem to work well: Observe that in general, two surfaces in three-space meet in a curve, and...
View ArticleAnswer by Donu Arapura for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic...
Perhaps you're going about this the wrong way. Instead of trying to describe what most algebraic geometers do today, try to describe a problem, or set of problems, that is reasonably concrete and...
View ArticleAnswer by Ben McKay for How to explain to an engineer what algebraic geometry...
Abhyankar's book Algebraic Geometry for Scientists and Engineers doesn't give a short answer, but many long ones, with explicit examples of determining the geometric nature of the solutions of...
View ArticleHow to explain to an engineer what algebraic geometry is?
This question is similar to this one in that I'm asking about how to introduce a mathematical research topic or activity to a non-mathematician: in this case algebraic geometry, intended as the most...
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