We will describe what a genus one curve is and then specialize to the case of elliptic curves. After discussing a simple looking problem through which elliptic curves become objects that we want to understand, we will summarize some known results about elliptic curves. To conclude, we will go back to the general genus one curve over the rationals and see how close this object is to being an elliptic curve. Mirela Çiperiani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin