CMS NOTES de la SMC Volume 35 No. 7 November/novembre 2003 In this issue / Dans ce numéro MESSAGE FROM THE between member societies, to promote VICE-PRESIDENT the goals of these societies, and to coordinate planning for periodic Editorial . .2 international meetings on industrial and applied mathematics. The Cana- Book Review: Mathematical dian Applied and Industrial Mathe- Apocrypha . .4 matics Society (CAIMS) is a small full member of the ICIAM and has one vote at the council meeting. (SIAM is Book Review: The Regulators a large full member and has two of Beilinson and Borel . .5 votes.) CMS, as an Associate Member, has one vote at the council. The Brief Book Reviews . .7 ICIAM has four Associate Members: European Mathematical Society, Dr. Samuel Shen, London Mathematical Society, Swiss Call for Sessions: CMS 2004 VP Western Provinces Winter Meeting . .10 Mathematical Society, and CMS. The rights of an associate member are more Français page 17 limited than those of a full member. Awards/Prizes . .11 International Council for Like the IMU, the ICIAM holds an Industrial and Applied academic conference once every four News from Departments . .13 years. The past conferences were at Mathematics Paris (1986), Washington DC (1991), Education Notes . .14 Hamburg (1995), Edinburgh (1999) The International Council for and Sydney (2003). ICIAM con- ferences follow a format similar to Message du Vice-président . .17 Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) is the applied mathematics those of the ICM (International Con- counterpart of the International gress of Mathematicians) and the Éditorial . .18 Mathematics Union (IMU). At the SIAM (Society of Industrial and ICIAM’s 2003 council meeting in Applied Mathematics). An ICIAM Minutes of the Annual Sydney, Australia, CMS became an congress has about 27 plenary and General Meeting . .19 Associate Member of the ICIAM. parallel invited lectures, a number of mini-symposia, sessions for contri- The ICIAM is governed by a buted talks, and poster sessions. Each Remembering a Star . .22 president, past-president, president- mini-symposium lasts two hours and elect, a secretary, a treasurer, and two includes four speakers. One may members-at-large. The current presi- organize more than one mini- dent is Ian Sloan from Australia. The symposium on a research topic. The ICIAM website is www.iciam.org. The contributed sessions consist of 15- missions of the ICIAM are to promote minute talks. industrial and applied mathematics globally, to promote interactions continued on page 9 of those involved emerged with a EDITORIAL renewed appreciation of that staple of CMS NOTES our society, alternating current. NOTES DE LA SMC It was Thomas Edison who first put Les Notes de la SMC sont publiés forward the idea of delivering cen- par la Société mathématique du Canada trally-generated electricity to homes (SMC) huit fois l’an (février, mars, and businesses; but he initially sent avril, mai, septembre, octobre, direct current over the transmission novembre et décembre). lines. This had many drawbacks, Rédacteurs en chef notably the difficulty of obtaining any Robert J. MacG. Dawson; voltage other than the line voltage S.Swaminathan except by wasteful methods involving [email protected] huge, hot resistors. Moreover, it was Rédacteurs-gérant difficult to avoid transmission losses, Graham P. Wright so the fixed voltage supplied by the Robert J. MacG. Dawson [email protected] system varied from place to place. Rédaction George Westinghouse and Nikola Éducation: Edward Barbeau; The Complex Numbers Tesla, on the other hand, pioneered the Harry White We Can’t Live Without [email protected] use of alternating current. This had Réunions: Monique Bouchard In the early morning of Monday, several advantages. Firstly, an AC [email protected] September 29, 2003, Hurricane Juan motor could be far simpler than any DC Revues: Peter Fillmore made landfall at Halifax, Nova Scotia. motor, because the constant change in [email protected] Winds gusted to about 175 kph, and the voltage provided the lack of Recherche: Vacant high waves and storm surge caused equilibrium needed to keep the motor [email protected] extensive coastal damage. Thousands moving. (Some AC motors — like Assistante à la rédaction of trees blew over, claiming two lives, those found in electric clocks — have Nathalie M. Blanchard altering Point Pleasant Park and the no moving part other than the rotor, and Public Gardens for generations, and no switching mechanisms!) Secondly, Note aux auteurs: indiquer la section knocking out power lines and alternating current can be converted to choisie pour votre article et le faire transformers throughout the city. almost any voltage (with a com- parvenir au Notes de la SMC à l’adresse pensating change in current) by the use Residents (including both your editors) postale ou de courriel ci-dessous: of a transformer. This device shares the awoke to a city without power; this Société mathématique du Canada elegant simplicity of the simplest AC was the beginning of a blackout that 577, avenue King Edward motors: it has no moving parts, and lasted, on some streets, for a week or C.P. 450, Succursale A typically consists of nothing but two more. Universities, businesses, and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5 copper coils sharing an iron core. Yet, nonessential services closed. Cooking Téléphone: (613) 562-5702 mysteriously, when an alternating was done on barbecues and Coleman Télécopieur: (613) 565-1539 current is placed across one coil, an stoves; evenings were lit by candles courriel : [email protected] answering potential — at the same and kerosene lamps. A hundred thou- Site Web : www.smc.math.ca frequency but a different voltage — sand refrigerators slowly started to Les Notes, les rédacteurs et la SMC appears across the other. ne peuvent être tenus responsables des thaw; a generator was a possession opinions exprimées pas les auteurs. more envied than a yacht or a The development of efficient Les fichiers d’option de style utilisés swimming pool. transformers — and many other pour la production de ce volume sont important developments in AC Similar stories have played out, in une version modifiée des fichiers technology — is due in a large part to recent years, in Ontario and Quebec. conçus par Waterloo Maple Software, Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Steinmetz, The ice storm of 1998 caused far © 1994, 1995. who worked for Westinghouse after he greater devastation than Hurricane ISSN : 1193-9273 (imprimé) emigrated form Europe to the USA, Juan, keeping some areas in the dark 1496-4295 (électronique) was a strong believer in the power of for a month or more. On August 14th theory — a view diametrically opposed of this year, another massive blackout to that of Edison, who famously relied Société mathématique du Canada occurred – this time not caused by any on painstaking experiment and repeated © 2003 natural disaster, but by snowballing trials. The archetypal Steinmetz story, technical failures. In every case, most on the other hand, involves Steinmetz, 2 NOTES DE LA SMC NOVEMBRE hired as a consultant by General Electric to diagnose a engineering, as well as the basis of the theory of electronic problem with a generator, studying it for some time and filtering circuits. Instead of treating a passive filter network then chalking an “X” on the casing. He is said to have left as made up of resistors, capacitors, and coils, all acting instructions to cut into the casing at that point and remove differently and described by a complicated system of a certain number of turns of wire. This (so the tale runs) differential equations, an electronic engineer may consider proved successful, and Steinmetz submitted an itemized them all as resistors — but the “resistances” of the capacitors bill that read: and coils will be imaginary numbers, and functions of the frequency. Complex analysis and Fourier transforms also “Marking an X on the side of generator: $ 1.00 play their part in allowing the effect of a filter on complex Knowing where to mark it: $ 999.00” signals to be precisely predicted. Steinmetz’s single biggest contribution was probably the Today, although the basics of complex numbers are taught discovery was that alternating currents were most naturally in high school, the phrase “the square root of minus one” measured, not by positive real numbers (like coal, oil, or still has a slight sound of, well, unreality about it. The gas), or by real numbers (like direct current), but by complex unfortunate term “imaginary number” may be partly to numbers. This insight was the beginning of modern power blame here. Be that as it may — a major power blackout illustrates just how real a complex number can be. THIRD COMPETITION FOR THE NSERC-CMS “MATH IN MOSCOW” SCHOLARSHIP The second competition took place in September 2003. Sébastien Labbé, Sherbrooke University is the winner of this competition. He will benefit from a $10,000 scholarship to attend the winter semester 2004 at the Moscow Independent University. We wish him a very interesting and exciting semester. NSERC - CMS Math in Moscow Scholarships The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Two scholarships (NSERC) and the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) are pleased to announce three scholarships of $10,000 will be awarded in each. Canadian students registered in a mathematics or the spring competition computer science program are eligible. Deadline The three scholarships are to attend April 15, 2004 a semester at the small elite Moscow Independent to attend the Fall 2004 semester University. Math in Moscow Program One scholarship www.mccme.ru/mathinmoscow/ will be awarded in Application details the fall competition www.cms.math.ca/bulletins/Moscow_web/ Deadline September 30, 2004 For additional information please to attend the Winter 2005 semester see your department or call the CMS at 613-562-5702.