Seminar is on Wednesday in Smith Hall 211 at 4:00pm-5:10pm.
Pre-seminar is on Wednesday in Smith Hall 211 at 3:30pm-3:55pm.

Bell ringing in the English style is based not on melodies but on highly structured sequences of permutations. The art developed in the early 17th century, motivated in part by the physical constraints inherent in accurate control of a swinging bell weighing a ton or more. A typical goal is to ring each possible permutation of a set of bells exactly once (subject to further conditions). This led early bell ringers to discover key aspects of group theory centuries before professional mathematicians did.

The talk will feature live demonstrations of ringing (on handbells), history, some interesting but little known combinatorics, and present day open problems. It will be suitable for a general mathematical audience, and no technical background will be assumed.