Double Maths First Thing is taking regular hydration breaks
[Apologies. This did not post here at the scheduled time. Mistake on my part. Won’t happen again. At least not this week.]
Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the joy and delight in maths as something one does rather than (just) something one learns.
My current excitement is that the legendary Hana Ayoob is designing some Marjorie Rice-inspired decals for my elegant-but-boring guitars. Hopefully they’ll be stuck on in time for the not-yet-announced Pseudorandom Ensemble show in London in September. (Did I say that out loud? Oopsie.)
Links
First, to North America, where FIFA’s boffins have fallen victim to one of the classic blunders: the most famous is “thinking Scotland have a chance.” But only less well-known is this: “never design a tournament without involving mathematicians.” Oliver has noticed an anomaly in Group D, where Paraguay could finish third and be eliminated – ahead of Turkey, whose record might have been enough to progress. Inconceivable!
Next, to Birmingham, where Tom Briggs is hunting for maths at the Big Bang Fair.
Our third calling point is the Netherlands, where a surprising number (two!) people have analysed the railway system to determing which station is the most centra(a)l: Alejandra Ortiz Duran at Wolfram Research, and Valdemar Erk (out of curiosity). Ionica Smeets says she remembers an older paper that reached the conclusion of Zwolle, but neither of us have been able to find it – let me know if you’re better at search than either of us.
Next stop: the whole wide world, and Eugene Alvin Villar’s mesmerising display of where you get sunlight at solstice. Meanwhile, Colin Wright is trying to measure his latitude and longitude and wonders why his method isn’t doing the job.
And finally, Galway, where this section terminates: Papers have been released for Bridges 2026, which takes place in early August.
Currently
There’s a Finite Group livestream tomorrow! That’s Thursday June 25th at 5pm UK time. Ayliean and Katie are talking tilings.
Via Lucy Rycroft-Smith, there’s an IMA ECM VMT on Friday July 3rd at 12 noon UK time discussing the Leiden Declaration. Yeah, I don’t like the acronyms either, especially when three of the letters are effectively the same word. (Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, Early Career Mathematicians, Virtual Maths Tea – which I think is an online meeting.)
If you’ve got Carnival of Mathematics submissions, do send them in – Robin Whitty is collating the June/July links to post in early August.
That’s all I’ve got for this week. If you have friends and/or colleagues who would enjoy Double Maths First Thing, do send them the link to sign up – they’ll be very welcome here.
If you’ve missed the previous issues of DMFT or – somehow – this one, you can find the archive courtesy of my dear friends at the Aperiodical.
Meanwhile, if there’s something I should know about, you can find me on Mathstodon as @icecolbeveridge, or at my personal website. You can also just reply to this email if there’s something you want to tell me.
Until next time,
C