Computers in Mathematics

Computers are increasingly used in mathematics in many ways, some sensible and others not.
The computations I will talk about today are completely precise. They are not about drawing pretty pictures, but about seeing exactly how certain mathematical objects (elliptic curves) behave.
Over the last few decades computations of the type I will describe today have repeatedly had a major influence on the direction of research in number theory. A famous mathematician, Bryan Birch, once said to me: "It is always best to prove true theorems."

Computers are increasingly used in mathematics in many ways, some sensible and others not.