The third instalment of the David Olive Distinguished Lectures by Prof. Sir Michael Berry (Bristol) , March 2022.
Many ‘mathematical phenomena’ find application and sometimes spectacular physical illustration in the physics of light. Concepts such as fractals, catastrophe theory, knots, infinity, zero, and even when 1+1 fails to equal 2, are needed to understand rainbows, twinkling starlight, sparkling seas, oriental magic mirrors, and simple observations on interference, polarisation and focusing. This strongly visual talk echoes Wigner’s ‘unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics’ but presents a different point of view.