# Apéryodical takeover: It’s Roger Apéry’s 100th birthday!

Today is the 100th anniversary of Roger Apéry’s birth, and we’re The Aperiodical, so we just had to make a big deal of it.

So, for all of today, we’re The Apéryodical. Throughout today we’ve got a few posts about Apéry and the thing he’s most closely associated with: the Riemann zeta function.

For now, here’s a really big ζ. You’ll need it later.

ζ

# Not Mentioned on the Aperiodical, 10th November 2016

Here’s a round-up of some of the news from this month.

## Never-ending Turing centenary, part XLVI

The Alan Turing centenary shows no signs of abating.

First of all, there’s a marvellous new art installation under Paddington Bridge in London, in memory of Turing. There’s also a theatre piece called Breaking the Code, showing at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre until 19th November.

Secondly, work continues to introduce legislation in the UK pardoning all gay men who were convicted of crimes related to homosexuality, in the same way Alan was a few years ago. Ministers said they were ‘committed’ to getting the law passed, but in an emotional session the bill was “talked out” by minister Sam Gyimah, meaning it wasn’t voted on.

## LMS wins the first Royal Society Athena prize

The London Mathematical Society (LMS) has been honoured this autumn by receiving the first Royal Society Athena Prize to recognise its advancement of diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) within the mathematical community. The prize was awarded in a ceremony at the Royal Society’s annual diversity conference on 31 October.

Royal Society press release

## Fourth Christopher Zeeman medal goes to Rob Eastaway

Mathematician, author and friend of the site Rob Eastaway has received the 2016 Christopher Zeeman medal, awarded to recognise and acknowledge the contributions of mathematicians involved in promoting mathematics to the public and engaging with the public in mathematics in the UK.

There will be an award lecture taking place on 22 March 2017, and details will be announced in Mathematics Today and the LMS Newsletter.

# Principia Reissue Kickstarter

Spanish independent publisher Kronecker Wallis is making a new edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematicia, using a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial print run. Here’s their video:

It looks like it’ll be a fairly pretty object, and they’ve put a lot of time and thought into choosing the paper, fonts and layout. Their Kickstarter runs for around another 24 hours, and a pledge of €45 or more will secure you a copy of the finished article.

Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica Reissue, on Kickstarter

# Puzzlebomb – November 2016

Puzzlebomb is a monthly puzzle compendium. Issue 59 of Puzzlebomb, for November 2016, can be found here:

The solutions to Issue 59 will be posted at the same time as issue 60.

Previous issues of Puzzlebomb, and their solutions, can be found at Puzzlebomb.co.uk.

# Curvahedra is a construction system for arty mathsy structures

Edmund Harriss is a very good friend of the Aperiodical, and a mathematical artist of quite some renown. His latest project is CURVAHEDRA, a system of bendable boomerang-like pieces which join together to make all sorts of geometrical structures.

# The magic number 25641

Reader of the site Bhaskar Hari Phadke has written in to tell us this fun fact about the number $25641$. It’s easier to show than to describe, so here goes:

\begin{align}
25641 \times \color{blue}{1} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{1}02564 \\
25641 \times \color{blue}{2} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{2}05128 \\
25641 \times \color{blue}{3} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{3}07692 \\
25641 \times \color{blue}{4} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{4}10256 \\
25641 \times \color{blue}{5} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{5}12820 \\
25641 \times \color{blue}{6} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{6}15384 \\
25641 \times \color{blue}{7} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{7}17948 \\
25641 \times \color{blue}{8} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{8}20512 \\
25641 \times \color{blue}{9} \times 4 &= \color{blue}{9}23076
\end{align}

A good one to challenge a young person with.

I did a little bit of Sloanewhacking and found a couple of sequences containing $25641$ which almost, but don’t quite, describe this property. So, semi-spoiler warning: you might enjoy A256005 and A218857. I’d like to come up with the ‘magic number’ which looks the least like it’ll have this property – any ideas?