The Aperiodical 

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Relatively Prime is funded

By Peter Rowlett. Posted August 3, 2011

Well, incredibly, Samuel Hansen has done it – Relatively Prime will be funded in six hours, having now crossed the minimum funding limit. (If you want your name on the list of funders you can still donate $5 by 11:13pm EDT and every little extra will help.)

Anyway, moments after the bid came in that pushed Relatively Prime over the magic $8,000 I spoke to Samuel, who broke through his shock to give a hearty thanks to everyone who had supported him. You can listen to this recording at acmescience.com as “Relatively Prime is Funded“:

So after a rather long wait everyone came through at the death and the ACMEScience Kickstarter project Relatively Prime got funded. I want to thank all of you who helped make this dream of mine a reality. Right after the pledge that knocked us over the edge happened I talked with my Math/Maths co-host Peter Rowlett to talk about how it felt. Listen to how happy I sound.

Next time you wake up, Relatively Prime will be a missed opportunity… unless you act! 5 key facts

By Peter Rowlett. Posted August 3, 2011

This is the last opportunity you have to support Relatively Prime. Five key facts:

1. Relatively Prime will be worth listening to.
   Relatively Prime will be a series of eight hour long podcasts to tell stories from the world of mathematics by Samuel Hansen. Read Hints about Relatively Prime, where I have collected the hints Samuel has given about the stories he would like to tell.
2. Relatively Prime is different from all the mathematics podcasts you have ever heard.
   Samuel’s ambition for this project goes beyond any amateur endeavour you are used to (I say this as an amateur podcaster). Listen to five minutes of me quizzing Samuel about the project.
3. If Relatively Prime doesn’t raise $8,000 it won’t happen.
   As I write, 125 wonderful people and me have donated $5,448, which is really amazing but falls short of the target.
   The way Kickstarter works, if Relatively Prime fails to achieve the $8,000 target IT GETS NOTHING. This isn’t a pledge-drive with a vague target – if Relatively Prime doesn’t reach its target it will fail.
   As I write, Relatively Prime needs $2552 in the next 18 hours. Just looking at people who’ve clicked the bit.ly link (not those who’ve visited the link directly) there are currently 2,838 clicks. If they had all left a dollar Relatively Prime would be funded by now!
4. Supporting Relatively Prime is quick and easy.
   Payment is through Amazon, so if you’ve used Amazon you don’t need to worry about giving another site your credit card details, and Amazon takes care of the currency exchange.
5. Relatively Prime is good for mathematics communication.
   Samuel Hansen is a budding mathematics communicator. During his masters degree he has been engaged with such activities as the Strongly Connected Components mathematics interview show, the Combinations and Permutations comedic mathematics chat show, the Math/Maths Podcast news/current affairs show, the Math/Maths Week 2010 public lecture tour of the UK and the Math/Maths History Tour of Nottingham series of videos. Now he has graduated he is looking for his place in the world and Relatively Prime will give the world the opportunity to capture his enthusiasm and talent for the cause of mathematics communication.
   You know how the Fields medal is awarded “in recognition of distinguished research but also to encourage further effort“? Well Relatively Prime is our opportunity to do the same for Samuel – to recognise his work and to encourage further effort from someone with potential.
   It will also be good to think that we live in a world where good quality mathematics communication is valued.

Reading list:

• Peter Rowlett: Why I supported Relatively Prime and you should too;
• Katie Steckles: Stories worth telling are… worth a few dollars, surely? ;
• Plus Magazine: Relatively Prime: stories from the mathematical domain;
• Dave Gale: I’m supporting Relatively Prime;
• Who’ve I missed? Oh, that must be enough to be going on with!
• Look at some of the things people have been saying on Twitter about this (no login required).

Here’s an indicator of progress:

On communication and Google+

By Peter Rowlett. Posted July 30, 2011

I am bad at communication. Here is what I have observed:

I reply well when messages are short, informal and don’t require much structure or thought. Emails with some people are easy, if I feel like we are on the same wavelength, can speak briefly and to the point, use shorthand we both understand etc. I reply quickly to Sam, my podcast collaborator, with whom I have email exchanges like: “Saturday?” “Yep.” “7pm my time?” “Sure.” Twitter also fits into this category. Short, informal messages with an interface that works well on my phone are easy to reply to.

I don’t reply well to more in depth messages. It’s not that I have a problem with writing in sentences and thinking complex thoughts, it’s mostly a question of immediacy. I can knock out a quick email easily on my phone on the bus, or as a quick aside to the piece of work I am really doing on my computer. If I have to think about a reply, it goes on my to do pile, which is a strange and disturbing realm from which nothing returns. Emails sink down my inbox screen with alarming speed. Following recent unavailability, I have fallen far behind. Work days at the moment are a struggle with the most urgent work while my undealt-with email pile is fast approaching 1000. (Will it self destruct when it reaches four digits?) Having such a large, looming unknown in my life is quite disconcerting. I hope the quiet summer will give me time to catch up.

Of course, when an issue is too big for a tweet and a twitterer changes to email, they discover the forgotten realm of my inbox. If it was too big for a tweet, it is too big for a short, quick email and I’ve added it to the pile. (This isn’t deliberate, and I’m annoyed with myself about it. But, you see, if I don’t sort out this thing by tomorrow I’m going to miss that deadline…)

Where does Facebook fit? I find Facebook annoying. People send private messages which are basically like long emails but appear in a different place so I can’t reply so easily. I don’t find it as easy to quickly dip in and read something interesting, or engage with someone’s quick message because the web interface has more junk going on and the service doesn’t work so nicely on my phone. I’m fed up of meeting people and having conversations like: “You know my ?” “Really, wow, congratulations!” “What? But surely you knew? I did post it on my Facebook wall.” (Yes, really.) Originally I refused to sign up to Facebook and only did so once I started working for the IMA and we were starting a group. Now I no longer work in that sort of area, should I get off Facebook? I’m really tempted.

Into this picture steps Google+. Again I resisted the first attempts to get me on it but I’ve been using it for three weeks now. I sort of like it. I don’t have to worry about abbreviating myself to 140 characters like on Twitter but there is still an expectation of short, quick updates. I’m not constantly asked to play games and other stuff. And people can reply in a way that keeps the conversation together better than Twitter. Still, there’s something about it that isn’t quite clicking with me. It may be the lack of people on there, which will be fixed in time. I’m still not quite sure.

Looking for a place for Google+ in this mess of my online communications feels a bit like having a problem at one end and having a solution at the other and trying to fit the one to the other even though they don’t go together. Still, Christian Perfect suggested Google+ was a better place for conversations around the Math/Maths Podcast. I regularly ask on Twitter ‘What’s happened in your mathematical world this week?’ Christian is suggesting I could collect the replies more sensibly on Google+. Further than this, I wondered if I might put up one or two stories and see if anyone had any comments on them that I could collect that way.

So I’m going to give it a try. Take a look at this week’s messages on my Google+ page – one about The Code and maths communication, the other asking for news from your mathematical week. Now, I’m off to tweet that I put up a new blog post…


Hints about Relatively Prime

By Peter Rowlett. Posted July 27, 2011

Although we all know Samuel Hansen will do a fantastic job telling stories behind mathematics, provided you donate some money to help him do so, we don’t entirely know what those stories will be. Here are a list of tweets I’ve seen on Samuel’s Twitter stream about this, giving hints.

help me tell people how crickets led to a better understanding of Kevin Bacon through math

Why does it seems that 20% of your friends get you 80% of your news?

Can slime molds make Steiner trees?

Networks are the basis of our social lives & what I’m trying to leverage to support my Kickstarter Relatively Prime

True story: It take 362 pages to prove 1+1=2. Find out more by Supporting the Relatively Prime Kickstarter.

Can a war over a math discovery make a country to fall years behind in science?

Ever wonder what how a river and logic could both lead to the same mathematical discovery?

Wondering if you can musically represent a function? Support Relatively Prime and I will have the chance to answer

Parallel lines intersect at exactly two points! Find out why this is true by supporting Relatively Prime.

The shape of the Internet is hyperbolic. And if you want to know why support my kickstarter Relatively Prime

Plus there’s the original hint on the Kickstarter page:

is it true that you are only 7 seven handshakes from the President, what exactly is a micromort, and how did 39 people commenting on a blog manage to prove a deep theorem … With each episode structured around topics such as: The Shape of Things, Risk, and Calculus Wars, Relatively Prime will illuminate each area by delving into the history, applications, and people that underlie the subject that is the foundation of all science

So if you haven’t got the message yet, find out about these stories by supporting Relatively Prime. My previous post focused on ways you can help as well as donating, including a ready-written blog post for you to put on your blog.

Relatively Prime is failing; what you can do to help

By Peter Rowlett. Posted July 26, 2011

Trying to study mathematics without the human stories is like reading a typed transcript of a Rolling Stones concert. The Relatively Prime project will throw the mathematics television out of the hotel window.

On Friday as I was going to bed I sent a message to Samuel Hansen, try to think of anything we could do to promote Relatively Prime on the Math/Maths podcast this week. By Saturday he had five people who had sent him audio recordings of their reasons for supporting, which he had edited into a 1 min advert for the Kickstarter fundraising project (the quote at the top of this article is from one of those funders). We then had a chat in which I asked Samuel about the project, what sorts of stories he was going to tell, what made it different from other podcasts he does. The result is in the latest Math/Maths Podcast 57 and has been released as an 8 minute audio piece through the acmescience podcasts. Listen to the funders’ reasons and our conversation here.

I’ve become quite vexed with the process of promoting this. If you look at Samuel’s twitter stream you can see him tweeting intriguing questions that will be answered by Relatively Prime. A sample of three:

Can a war over a math discovery make a country to fall years behind in science?…Can slime molds make Steiner trees? I’ll tell you if you support my Kickstarter Relatively Prime…help me tell people how crickets led to a better understanding of Kevin Bacon through math

I thought this was a neat idea and ReTweeted these when I saw them. This, and other marketing Samuel is doing, is attracting interest and, as the graph of donations, cumulative amount and time shows, there is a steady increase but it simply isn’t increasing quickly enough (click to enlarge).


It amazes me that 93 people have so far donated $3,793, but we have a problem. If the whole amount isn’t raised, all donations are cancelled. That’s the way Kickstarter works. So it’s a question of reaching new audiences. Samuel can keep tweeting, and I can keep tweeting on his behalf, but the message isn’t getting further out. I already posted on this blog about the project – “Why I supported Relatively Prime and you should too” – and according to Blogger some 250 people have viewed that post. So I’m running out of new audiences to reach.

This is where you come in. If you haven’t donated to Relatively Prime, please consider chipping in some money. Small amounts sum to larger amounts, so even a small amount will help. There are only eight days to go.

If you have donated, please have a think – is there anything you can do to help promote the project. Post a message on whichever social networks you use. Put a message on your blog. It doesn’t have to be as elaborate as this one! Here’s some text you could use for a quick blog post:

Relatively Prime: Stories from the Mathematical Domain

Relatively Prime will be an 8 episode audio podcast featuring stories from the world of mathematics. Tackling questions like: is it true that you are only 7 seven handshakes from the President, what exactly is a micromort, and how did 39 people commenting on a blog manage to prove a deep theorem. Relatively Prime will feature interviews with leaders of mathematics, as well as the unsung foot soldiers that push the mathematical machine forward. With each episode structured around topics such as: The Shape of Things, Risk, and Calculus Wars, Relatively Prime will illuminate each area by delving into the history, applications, and people that underlie the subject that is the foundation of all science.

I think this could really be an amazing project, but it can only happen with your support. So please, if you can, support it financially, or please twitter, tumblr, reddit, blog, or any other thing about it – you can use the nice link http://bit.ly/relprime

Please just take that block of text – title and 2 paragraphs – and paste it on your own blog. It should only take you seconds and by doing so you will help break the message out of the same circles and reach new, interested people.

Plus, if you have any ability to get something written or an audio interview released though any sort of outlet in the next week please contact Samuel Hansen and give him the opportunity to talk about his project. You get some interesting content for your podcast/radio show/magazine/whatever and you’ll be helping Relatively Prime.

The unplanned impact of mathematics

By Peter Rowlett. Posted July 13, 2011

Time and again, pure mathematics displays an astonishing quality. A piece of mathematics is developed (or discovered) by a mathematician who is, often, following his or her curiosity without a plan for meeting some identified need or application. Then, later, perhaps decades or centuries later, this mathematics fits perfectly into some need or application.

Maths at the East Midlands Big Bang Fair

By Peter Rowlett. Posted June 29, 2011

Recently I was invited to take a mathematical puzzles stall to the East Midlands Big Bang science fair. This took place in Nottingham yesterday. I gathered a few friends from the Nottingham MathsJam group, which I run, and we planned what we could do with a stall. We agreed a list of puzzles we could put together and run. We felt it was important to have solid, physical puzzles and games that would attract people to the stall, including making use of the floor area, as well as more advanced and intriguing items and a takeaway sheet. I wanted the takeaway sheet to provide some advice on problem solving techniques as well as some puzzles to try. There were various extra constraints as well as what we could physically make with no budget, including the difficulty of catering to the wide age range of those attending: 9 to 19!

We met a couple of weekends ago and agreed a set of puzzles, tried them on fellow MathsJammers at the monthly meeting last week and have spent the last week or so making bits and pieces ready for the fair yesterday (particular thanks in that regard are due to John Read and Kathryn Taylor). We called the stall “Solving it like a mathematician”. For big, attractive, fun we had Latin squares with giant playing cards, a puzzle involving arranging tokens inside a giant circle (a hula hoop) and matchstick puzzles with giant matchsticks (bamboo canes). For hands on activity we were making Möbius strips. The more in depth tabletop exercises included: Buffon’s needle for estimating pi (we got 3.78 from 141 throws); a ‘wisdom of crowds’ guessing how much rice is in the jar and rice on the chessboard exponential growth combo; and, the fifteen puzzle and how to tell if an arbitrary position can be solved. Each puzzle had an advice sheet and these as well as the handout are available on a page on my website.

I have been unwell recently so I took a lighter load than I might have for the day. I helped set up the stall and stayed for the first hour, in which not much was happening, then left until the afternoon. Here is a picture of the stall, ready to go but sans visitors.


After the first hour, I left the stall in the capable hands of John Read and Ian Peatfield for the morning. We had agreed a kind of shift system – I didn’t want everyone arriving first thing and us all getting tired mid-afternoon. I went and found a cafe for a quiet read. When I returned after lunch Ian had finished his stint, Alex Corner and Noel France had joined John, and the stall was abuzz! Here is a photo.


Apart from the combination of bamboo cane ‘matches’ and plastic plate ‘coins’ for some of the oversized puzzles leading to a plate spinning class, everything was going as planned. Soon we were joined by Kathryn Taylor and the five of us spent the afternoon rushing around after wave-upon-wave of pupils. That every few minutes another pupil was dragged away from the stall, “put that down now, we’ve got to leave”, by their teachers was, I think, a sign of success. Here’s one more picture from the afternoon.


Overall, I am very pleased with the stall we made and the team who ran it. My first science fair and a very pleasing experience indeed. I hope some of our visitors saw some interest in mathematics and the couple of hundred who took the advice sheet might learn something about approaching problems. Now, to find somewhere to store my new ‘puzzles stall kit’ for next time!

Congratulations should go to David Ault and his team for organising the fair which, as far as I can tell, went very smoothly.