The beauty I see in algebra: Margot Gerritsen at TEDxStanford

Margot Gerritsen is a professor of energy resources engineering and the director of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering. After receiving her master's degree in applied mathematics in the Netherlands, Gerritsen moved to the United States in search of "hillier and sunnier places." She received her doctorate in scientific computing and computational mathematics at Stanford, and later became a faculty member at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Gerritsen specializes in renewable and fossil energy production and in computational mathematics. She is also active in coastal ocean dynamics and yacht design.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[@avitimushi1541]

Margot makes mathematics appetizing.. Such an enthusiasm. Very rarely can lay people enjoy something a mathematician says. At least there are many physicists who know what to say to the lay people and make them understand complex phenomena. With Margot speaking, a person starts thinking to do Math even for fun as a hobby!!!

[@margotgerritsen8422]

That's a nice compliment, Aviti!

[@changeme454]

She is amazing 😍. I like her lectures about mathematics!

[@youreale]

After years of indecision I decided to apply to a master after watching one of the professor Gerritsen talks. I cannot thank her enough for such inspirational vision about math sciences.

[@jjwqxh6513]

I’m crying out of emotional for a real math teacher if they can only write the algorithm to make her my mother I’ll volunteer to be born again

[@rayxr]

If this isn't motivation to pay attention in linear algebra class I don't know what is.

[@noditschi]

If you're an engineering student, linear algebra (we call it LinA) is probably most probably THE interesting maths subject you'll have in the course of your studies.

[@pavels8890]

i study linear algebra now and i want to kill myself

[@lakde99]

I just started a course of linear álgebra, and my teacher sent this video to the class’s group, it’s amazing

[@kwokfu007]

How beautiful mathematics is

[@margotgerritsen8422]

The program is called GraphViz

[@kesh4781]

Thank you. Great Talk

[@bhartendu_kumar]

linear Algebra is such one thing which as I learn more, there is even more that I don’t know! Paradox!!

[@eecejk]

So impressive : Matrices are everywhere. Thanks!

[@Yohoney1000]

Thank you. great presentation.

[@91722854]

i have always found algebra interesting, and was amused by how simultaneous equations solve the unknowns

[@shoaibsultan7849]

That"s Wonderful,Thank you so much Professor.

[@jcookfl]

Margot Gerritsen is truly a brilliant mathematician, and has a rare gift of being able to articulate very abstract ideas in a practical and intriguing manner. As a software developer, I long ago adopted the philosophy that computer science is about big ideas, rather than specific technologies, so I especially enjoy her lectures related to computational mathematics. She often shows how practical mathematical patterns relate to things such as search engine technologies, social networking, and more. I hope everyone else enjoys these talks as much as I do.

[@raisabintehuda2814]

loved this

[@Corranhorn122]

Margot Gerritsen, you blew my mind tonight. As someone who has a BS in Mathematics and fair exposure to physics, I thought I had a good idea about the general lay of the land (I'll admit Linear algebra was not my strong point), but I'd never thought of representing systems of equations/matrices as node-edge graphs. It's beautiful! What's more, with your demonstration of an application to visualization of web page networks, I think you hinted that these same methods that you mainly applied to physical problems here are also very useful in other domains like data science/big data. The more you know. :)

[@gflow8357]

Have you ever heard of graph theory?..........

[@destinyovbiebo8988]

She is amazing!

[@deepanmaitra4018]

Loved this

[@vidhyavijayan5244]

The beauty of math is very beautiful presented 🙏😍♥️

[@theboombody]

I majored in math. As useful as algebra is, I try to use geometry as much as possible and algebra as little as possible. When stuff doesn't cancel out it kills me.

[@LThMath]

An incredible, inspirational talk. This is wonderful :)

[@margotgerritsen8422]

Thank you, LThMathematics

[@uraniumpotato4440]

Honestly marvelous 😊

[@williamjayaraj2244]

Thanks for the presentation on Matrix.

[@manish8206]

Excellent Presentation people will love algebra after seeing this nice presentation

[@kristypolymath1359]

8:54 please tell me I'm not the only one seeing the diagonal lines in the matrix? They are running through the 0.1562 numbers. Are my eyes playing tricks on me? o_0

[@wstomv]

Margot mentions that this is a so-called Toeplitz matrix, and these are `diagonal-constant’ (as, in fact, she explicitly says). So, your eyes did not play tricks. You see what you’re supposed to see.

[@asimian8500]

Some clarification and to take nothing away from this TEDx talk: Margot is talking about linear algebra, which is considered difficult by most math majors. While matrices exist everywhere it's an *invented* mathematical notation. It doesn't exist in Nature. It's a convenient data structure (data structure for computer science students/programmers) which allows us to do manipulations in a convenient manner.

[@Ainsaboo]

Is there a way to find the program she uses to make matrix maps?

[@MF-bi8ke]

Beautiful!

[@MuhammadHamza-kc2wk]

That's really impressive and so true

[@newsgo1876]

From the so few applause we can tell that there's a long way for the mass people to fully appreciate mathemtatics...

[@elianeluty2065]

thank you so much

[@anoncandra]

Yes yes yes . . I understand. Fantastic.

[@crystalloop580]

Thanks Al

[@hasanabdeen2968]

Now I can literally relate everything in life to math.

[@arjundevjoshi512]

it s really really great and interesting inspirational idea i wanna to salute you

[@alexandrugheorghe5610]

Cool stuff. So funny to think that back when I was in school and I was asking professors "where can I use this? and how useful it is in real life?" they did not know how to answer. Most of the professors just copy paste but have 0% application in mind. May be that it was a shitty school or not, the fact does not change: forcing people to memorize is the worst way of teaching. I've encountered only a few professors in my entire life and all of them online which could transcribe mathematics to real world application, how to see a problem and to translate it in mathematics thus making you understand the power of it all and why it's the basis of all sciences (my most favorite: physics). How can one not use mathematics? Try to solve problems efficiently by throwing banana or any other devised system/mechanism. Good luck with that, haha. Brilliant talk! We need more and more like her in all levels of school such that the students can correlate what they are thought with the real world and thus having more people solving problems rather than mindlessly memorizing stuff.

[@arunn3924]

Hi Margot Gerritsen, Great talk and very inspiring. Especially the models you showed at the end. Are there any Java or python codes to develop those model based on the matrices input we give. If there are any , please share or point in the direction where I can get it . I hope many people will watch your video and get inspired with Math instead of thinking it is boring. Thanks again !!!! Regards, Arun

[@arunn3924]

Actually , I found out the name of the application , its GraphViz. Nevermind , Thanks .

[@mygames6324]

Awesome

[@ThuyNguyen-bu9ge]

I love math!

[@jeoantapo]

+Tiffastic Nguyen Me too.

[@margotgerritsen8422]

I hope not!

[@user-pp4yu1ev9s]

because of its unexpected brand new view?

[@NetSkillNavigator]

Me too

[@raquelanastasia]

Same!

[@mirnash1303]

I really want to know how they do the visuals, what programs do they use?

[@neojohnson113]

She's so lovely, just like the Algebra she presented.

[@laxmibansiwal9924]

Thanku

[@leavesofdecember]

there I was thinking it would be a talk about abstract algebra, and all I get was basic linear algebra plus programmig :(

[@adip8]

whizkid Dummit and Foote

[@harshithatwal8293]

beauty of maths and equations

[@julesw1403]

Superb.

[@noahz3429]

7:52 its the stand arrow

[@davedonnie6425]

I hope this is a simplified explanation, because I don't really get it

[@bernardofitzpatrick5403]

Love your enthusiasm Margot!

[@margotgerritsen8422]

Thank you, bernard

[@GurpreetSingh-en3gx]

where i can find the research paper in which this technique is published ?

[@sadiabatool8813]

interesting ....i really like it....

[@rm9994]

At 10.38 there are loads of ones. Why no connection with all of them? I’m confused

[@kevinkatzke2083]

😲 Wow that is amazing

[@GenerationX1984]

I have way too many negative experiences banging my head down on the kitchen table because I got stuck on a math problem in high school and college to appreciate the beauty in such a frustrating subject. I still have nightmares about dividing complex polynomials with multiple terms in the divisor.

[@daxan19]

that's not math, that's just often pointless torture

[@paulcoy5201]

I agree, I hayed math in school, now you know what, I still hate math. I would rather eat ground glass than mess with math.

[@atiqrahman7289]

Very interesting

[@br75857]

Ohh thanks dear Margot

[@Vishaltiwari530]

Great

[@davedave6650]

Linear Algebra is one of the only reasons I fire up MS Excel.

[@khalidhasan8686]

What a beautiful accent. Am I right?! Who else watching it from Somaliland.

[@BlackMamba-tf5hy]

Where are matrix in those pattern

[@davidwilkie9551]

Algebra.., in-form-ation Calculus sum-of-all-histories function of fixed-form reciprocal numberness.., becomes the holographic matrix. Beautifully cause-effective QM-Time Principle In-form-ation.

[@user-wg6fe5uj8r]

I’m just waiting for people to use this for History Channel’s next version “the Bible code” 😅. J/k. I’m definitely showing this to my math class the next time we do systems of equations though.

[@ririssapitri5372]

Good

[@atiqrahman7289]

I learnt Algebra in high school, but have forgotten all that. My knowkedge about Akgebra is zero now.

[@PasscodeAdvance]

Zero by A over Six. There, I fixed it

[@Psychokitten113]

I hate maths and algebra. I quite maths when I was 15 im glad I did

[@keshav2136]

"Mathematics behind machine learning"

[@puneetkumar2428]

I think everybody likes her. Woowwww.

[@jjwqxh6513]

Wow wow wow that’s all I can say

[@carbon273]

pretty interesting I guess.

[@carlberg3]

Great talk, Margot!

[@margotgerritsen8422]

Thanks, Kevin

[@colin6768]

This is an intriguing video and its videos like this that can make people appreciate the beauty of math. I suspect that the reason many people hate math is that they view it as intangible - that it doesn't relate to anything concrete. At least that's how it seems with the math courses I've taken. Case in point - right now I'm taking college algebra and doing exercises with compound fractions. These exercises are simply dreadful and its problems like these that kill math for many people - basically it's busy work. On the one hand those exercises are useful because they teach you precision with handling mathematical symbols as well as being able to follow mathematical rules, on the other hand they make math extremely boring as well as confusing. In my opinion these problems are soulless - these are problems that should be done by computers, not humans. Obviously math is used in engineering, chemistry, physics, economics, biology, psychology, and many other fields, the problem is they way it's taught is by not bringing those connections to light except in the occasional word problems. I can appreciate the genius of a Gauss or Euler but math as it's currently taught needs a drastic overhaul.

[@martlang3763]

I'm in love...❤ and it's not with the matrix 😊

[@naimulhaq9626]

Frankly and honestly, I fail to see how algebra is anything more than solving equations.

[@xavierkreiss8394]

Sorry: I haven't understood a word. Not even the first explanation of how to calculate x y and z. Ms Gerritsen is addressing an audience of people who already understand algebra, and I don't. So I can't see the beauty she speaks of, which is frustrating.

[@carmelpule6954]

Never mind x,y,z, try this one. If 4 apples plus 3 oranges cost 17 cents and 2 apples plus 6 oranges cost 22 cents. Find the cost of 1 apple and the cost of 1 orange. Believe me that when you go shopping you are using algebra, as the letters x, y, z are in fact objects which you can handle every day. It is interesting that x and y and z can represent unknown numbers of items where the mathematician subjects them to known operations and out comes the unknown numbers described by x and y. and z. It is similar to magic to those who do not understand it, it is not only entertaining , but so elegant and so beautiful.

[@xavierkreiss8394]

Elegant and beautiful? Not for me. I have no idea on how to answer your question on apples and oranges. Not idea at all. Some people say "everyone can do maths": well, I can truly tell you that if you offered me a lot of money (a million dollars for instance) to solve this i still couldn't do it.

[@curtdawg4560]

Xavier Kreiss you know how to learn. If you learn how to do the problem then you could do the problem. You choose not to learn the problem so therefore you cant do the problem. I think thats what you meant to say but it came out wrong. To reiterate, you choose not to do the problem because you dont care about it because you see no practical use in it in your daily life. Math's an analytical art and people that dont take interest in it dont like to think analytically, they like to do what works and not worry about why cuz if it works it works. There are huge advantages to that type of thinking but it's generally more expensive and/or time consuming because you have to deal with the trial and error aspect because you dont understand the patterns of what works rather you have a firm concept of what does and doesnt work. The analytics come into play when you are stuck and dont know whats going to work. With analytics you see why things have worked and can apply those root conepts to any new scenario to have a more likely chance of having a better outcome when faced with the unfamiliar.

[@xavierkreiss8394]

If the answer was intended for me, thank you for taking the trouble. Unfortunately I don't understand a single word of your explanation. Also: you say that I "choose not to learn the problem" so therefore I can't do the problem. Where do you see that? Where do I "choose not to learn the problem"? You add "I think thats what you meant to say". Well, no, it isn't - I'm sorry. What I meant to say is clear enough and wasn't what you wrote.What I meant to say is what I said: I don't understand maths or algebra.

[@fashionempress]

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to manipulate and solve this type of equation. We have 2 equations. (1) denotes equation 1, and (2) denotes equation 2. /// Denotes a comment, to explain the step. (1) 4x + 3y = 17 (2) 2x + 6y = 22 /// Manipulate (2) so that the x value will match (1)'s x value /// In this case, we want to turn the 2x into 4x, so we multiply everything by 2 (3) 4x + 12y = 44 /// We get a new equation, let's call it (3) /// Now we can pretty much ignore (2). Let's look at (1) and (3) (1) 4x + 3y = 17 (3) 4x + 12y = 44 /// Since 4x - 4x = 0, we will do subtraction because we want to make the x 0 (3) - (1) /// You can also do (1) - (3), but this is easier since (3) has bigger numbers (3) 4x + 12y = 44 - (1) 4x + 3y = 17 ----------------------- 0 + 9y = 27 /// This 0 is the result we want, getting rid of x helps us find y 9y = 27 y = 27/9 = 3

[@fantastic6295]

I'm watching this to motivate myself for my calculus classes

[@nhatinhquang4258]

Is there anyone from UEL? =)))

[@user-kh4px4st8o]

Aminnn

[@sythainthisane]

Thank you so much to cheer us on the general knowledge about Algebra. Thanks again for refreshing my memory. I just retired last year and start my youtube channel not long ago. (What, why, how) Algebra existing on our earth. Check it out, please, thanks.

[@ciro7774]

Mr.Baas hw 👀

[@iresharachchige9134]

this is awesome

[@ruinrain2950]

Amazing....

[@chuanjoo]

I don't get it

[@GrantJolanta]

wtf this is amazing

[@jromeroevo]

beautiful and smart...super hard to find these days :)

[@dickcarr6891]

I guess this is why I am not a mathematician

[@atiqrahman7289]

Matrices are everywhere!? Do not understand what matrix is.

[@easyeagle2]

I never saw her point of building a matrix, except maybe to demonstrate symmetry??

[@blackedits5445]

Escape The Matrix🧌

[@mintea5596]

I don't get what she's talking about... matrix? Dots? Codes? Whatt? 😭😭😭😭

[@margotgerritsen8422]

Thanks, Roberto!

[@lodathi]

I still use paper and board 4 and more hours per day...

[@titanarmy4116]

get a computer

[@RobertoSicconi]

I had already noticed stingy aspects in most financial portfolio analyses... your matrix model just confirms that... ;-) Magic Galaxy representation of catalogs and subcatalogs in the Library of Congress - Fascinating and inspiring talk! Thank you, Margot

[@thimoi6972]

XXXXX

[@paulcoy5201]

You love it, I hate it.

[@atiqrahman7289]

ALGEBRA is applicable in Science and Engineering? !

[@benjamin.tuioti3941]

Hi mr heyman 😈

[@Rene-uz3eb]

The examples given in the talk are too simplistic. Its more relevant how the blood circulation network is maintained than its temporary fluid flow properties, which the body already has myriad of self adjusting mechanisms. Which is what should be investigated, instead of flow dynamics, just because that's something engineers know how to model. Pharma companies love to waste time and resources so they can drive up drug prices.

[@surceriol4603]

wtf so smart also wtf how i got here

[@masoudarbab3445]

Education...learning...teaching...knewing...bring good humanity for God !

[@quantrandanh7449]

fut

[@quantrandanh7449]

fut

[@xavierkreiss8394]

Months ago I tried to understand this and got nowhere. I've looked at the clip once again and I can say that the lady might as well be speaking Mandarin. I don't understand ANYTHING of what she's saying. I wish I could find someone, somewhere, to explain what to me has always been a frustratingly closed book.

[@gitanshdhamija5351]

Whoa!!

[@gitanshdhamija5351]

super cool

[@noellundstrom7447]

Agreed!

[@princekrazie]

It's all about relationships. Looks like STEM students aren't virgins after all.

[@MISHIMISHI27838]

Thats not TED he aint talking