This month I'm doing a completely irrational sponsored run for Sport Relief, aiming to raise £100π by running πkm per day, every day in March. I'm one week in, and here's the story so far.
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We spotted this photograph of a letter to The Telegraph, shared by Card Colm on Twitter earlier in the year. It’s exactly the kind of mathematical claim we like to enjoy verifying, so we thought we’d dig in.
I’m going to run πkm every day in March
Inspired by the BBC’s Sport Relief fundraising campaign, I’ve decided to set myself a vaguely mathematical running challenge. My current routine does involve a little running, but nothing serious, so I’ve given myself a bar to aim for that’s both vaguely achievable, and completely irrational.
I’ll aim to run π kilometres (or as close as I can get, with the measuring instruments I have access to) each day during the month of March. This will either be on the treadmill at my gym – in which case I’ll try to get a photo of the ‘total distance’ readout once I’ve finished – or out in the real world, for which I’ll use some kind of running GPS logging device, to provide proof I’ve done it each day. Some days I’ll run on my own, and others I’ll be accompanied by friends/relatives, who’ll be either running as well or just making supportive noises. At the end of the month, I’ll post an update documenting my progress/success/failure.
Serious request: if you know of anywhere in the UK I can reasonably get to where there’s an established circle that’s exactly 1km in diameter, I can try to come and run round the circumference of it. Drop me an email if so.
If you’d like to support my ridiculous plan, you can follow my progress and donate on my fundraising page, or encourage others to do so by visiting pikm.run (I paid £4 for the URL, so now I have to do it). Sport Relief is the even-numbered-years-counterpart of Comic Relief, which together raise money for thousands of projects all over the UK and in the developing world, to help the vulnerable and those in need.
A winning competition
As part of this year’s MathsJam gathering, as for the last few years, we held a competition competition (you may have seen Peter’s recent post about his entry to the same event in 2014). My competition was the winner, and I thought I’d share with you some of the entries, as I very much enjoyed reading them all.
The Calculus Story – Interview with author David Acheson
The Calculus Story is the latest new book from author and mathematician David Acheson, telling the story of the history of calculus – with all the positive determinants and negative determinants along the way. The book came out on 23rd November through Oxford University Press. We spoke to David to find out what inspired him to tell the greatest (local maximum) story ever told.
Festival of the Spoken Nerd: Just for Graphs DVD
The new live DVD from science comedy trio Festival of the Spoken Nerd, Just for Graphs, is out now, and we’ve been sent a copy to review. We got together a pile of appropriately nerdy science fans to watch (left), and here’s what we thought.
HLF Blogs: Is mathematics idealistic or realistic?
In September, Katie and Paul spent a week blogging from the Heidelberg Laureate Forum – a week-long maths conference where current young researchers in maths and computer science can meet and hear talks by top-level prize-winning researchers. For more information about the HLF, visit the Heidelberg Laureate Forum website.
5th Heidelberg Laureate Forum 2017, Heidelberg, Germany, Picture/Credit: Christian Flemming/HLF
The closing talk of the HLF’s main lecture programme (before the young researchers and laureates head off to participate in scientific interaction with SAP representatives to discuss maths and computer science in industry) was given by Fields Medalist Steve Smale.