| Abstract:
We all know that an elliptic curve is not an ellipse. Still, ellipses
are very much connected with elliptic curves. The adjective
'elliptic' comes from the so-called elliptic functions which arise
from the problem of finding the arc length of an ellipse. This
problem leads to an integral that cannot be evaluated by elementary
functions. The idea of inverting such integrals led to the theory
of doubly periodic functions. The development of that theory - by
Gauss, Abel, Jacobi, Weierstrass and others - was one of the high
points of nineteenth century mathematical achievement. In this talk,
we will go through this fascinating story.
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