The Beauty and Mathematics of Juggling | Alexander Leymann | TEDxDresden

Theoretical physicist and juggler Alexander Leymann explains and demonstrates how jugglers use mathematics to describe, communicate and generate new juggling patterns. He introduces the site swap notation for juggling patterns, where throws are represented by numbers according to their height, or more precisely by the number of beats that a thrown ball spends in the air. This way of describing juggling patterns is extremely useful, since as Alexander demonstrates there are certain rules how to change a given sequence numbers and thus create a new pattern. Alexander Leymann is a theoretical physicist at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden and a passionate juggler.

Alex has performed and taught juggling since the age of 14. One of his favorite juggling styles is the classic 3-ball juggling since this allows for an endless number of variations and a dance like levity. He also is an ambitious combat juggler, which is a form of martial art, where the aim is to hit a juggling club out of your opponents pattern while being in control of your own pattern. Furthermore, Alex has attended juggling conventions and organized combat events for many years. These get-togethers are an important part of the juggling scene to exchange tricks and engage in friendly competition.

As a theoretical physicist Alex is working in the field of semiconductor lasers and non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx