3/6: Steve Oloo, “The Euler Characteristic. What is it good for?”.

The Undergraduate Math Seminar will meet at its usual time and place. This week, Steve Oloo will speak on: “The Euler Characteristic. What is it good for?” (abstract below). As usual, free
pizza and soda will be provided.

Abstract:

I will remind you of the definition of the Euler characteristic
of a polyhedron and Euler’s famous formula concerning convex polyhedra. We
will then proceed to ask ourselves (and hopefully answer) all manner of
interesting questions like: For what spaces can we define an Euler
characteristic? Is the Euler characteristic a topological invariant? Is it
any good as a topological invariant? What is a topological space anyway?
Wait, why are we talking about graphs now? And, most importantly, how many
pentagons and hexagons do you need to make a soccer ball?