A Meditation on Multiplication (Suzy Paalman)

Recording of a lecture delivered on August 22, 2025, by Annapolis President Suzy Paalman as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Ms. Paalman offers the following description: 'We learn as young children that multiplication is taking a number a certain number of times, to form the times tables. As we learn more, the meaning of multiplication subtly changes, even as the methods of doing actual problems don't really change much. For instance, we learn early on to multiply length by width to find the area of a rectangle. How is finding the area of a shape related to taking numbers a certain number of times? This naive question will lead us to ask about the relation between number and magnitude, using Euclid and Descartes for help. In the end, our inquiry will come to mathematics as a discipline. The question, "What is multiplication?" will lead us, in the end, to the question, "What is mathematics?"'

Ms. Paalman's lecture is the first formal lecture of the academic year. Previously referred to as the Dean's Lecture, this lecture is now called the Christopher B. Nelson Lecture.