Report of BCME-5

Although the population at large finds this surprising there are plenty of occasions when mathematics gives pleasure. One such was the opening plenary address by Hyman Bass and Deborah Ball to BCME-5. This included and intriguing video clip in which a school class in the USA were discussing odd and even numbers and formulating theirown conjectures with oneyoung lad tenaciously defending his position that 6 is both odd and even. Truly the convergence to mathematical understanding is neither absolute nor uniform