A "Diabolical" Halloween Lecture

Non-Measurable Sets (where the Monsters come out)

The problem of computing the area of unusual sets has been with us since the Greeks. (For them, the area of a circle was a challenge.) It is a surprising fact that not every set in the plane can be assigned an area in a meaningful way. These issues pervade modern analysis, logic and probability and even rear their heads in physics. I will review some old and then some new examples in a talk aimed at a general university audience. But beware: Halloween is the day the monsters come out.