Rod Forcade : Material Lattices

There were black dots.  Then there were green dots.  Then there were blue dots.  It seems that these lattices consist of lines drawn through pegs in a board.

Prior to coming to this lecture, I had no idea what lattices were.  And now, after the lecture, I'm still a little lost.  I do understand that they are like pegs in a board.  They can span a vector space.  They can be used to describe shapes.

But now that I'm here, I'm seeing that this is like linear algebra.  From linear algebra, I remember matrices and the importance of basis matrices.  I think that lattices and matrices are somewhat similar?

In linear algebra, it was very difficult for me to grasp the concept of matrices, with determinants, spanning, etc.  Being back in this lecture brings me back to those days.  It's interesting to recognize and remember those things that I once learned.

I do like the principle of linear combinations.  That seems to make a lot of sense to me.  A lot of this other stuff is over my head, but I know what that is, I'm comfortable with it, I like it.

All and all, these lattices are interesting.  There seemed to be a good turnout at the talk, and the cookies and brownies were delicious.