Radio 4 maths police More or Less took time off from calling out journalists and deputy prime ministers for their misuse of statistics this series to sneak a hidden maths puzzle into their show. The first five episodes were “brought to us by” the numbers, respectively, 1, 49, 100, 784 and 1444. Listeners were invited to work out what number would bring us the final episode.
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Integer sequence puzzle in More or Less
More or Less, the BBC’s maths and statistics radio show, has been sneakily doing a puzzle on us for the last few weeks. The episodes in the series so far have each been ‘brought to you’, Sesame Street-style, by a different number. But what will the final episode be? Can you crack the integer code and solve the puzzle?
The puzzle was announced in the programme broadcast on the 27th of September; you can listen to it on the Radio 4 site or as a podcast (the puzzle bit is at 27:05). If you think you’ve solved the riddle, email More or Less through their website.
The episodes so far have been brought to you by the numbers 1, 49, 100, 784 and 1444. (It’s not in the OEIS; we’ve checked). You can find out if you’re right when the final episode in the series goes out, on BBC Radio 4 at 4.30pm on Friday 4th October.
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MathsJam Conference 2013: early-bird discount has ended
Unlike good news websites, we’re reporting this after it’s useful: if you wanted to book for this year’s MathsJam annual conference at the discounted 10% off early-bird rate, you’re now NOT able to do so. However, there are still a few places left, although not many, so if you do want to join in with a weekend of fun maths and hanging out with cool people, you should get in there as quickly as possible.
The MathsJam conference takes place on the weekend of 2-3 November, 2013. Between now and then, there’s only one monthly pub-based MathsJam meetup, which will be on 22nd October in a pub near you.
As if that weren’t enough, there’s even more opportunities to Jam with Maths, in particular if you happen to be in or near Manchester. The Manchester Science Festival takes place in October, and there’ll be an extra one-off big MathsJam in Manchester during the festival, which will take place on 29th October (yes, that’s between the monthly Jam and the conference). The people of Manchester can’t get enough maths, it seems, and if you’re in the area or will be for the science festival, feel free to join them for a night of lighting talks, celebrity spotting and maths puzzles. For more information, visit the Manchester Science Festival website, or read the same copy on the MathsJam site.
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Rubik’s Cube in Minecraft
The last time we posted about Minecraft, someone had made a scientific and graphing calculator. But now someone’s made something actually useful: a Rubik’s cube!
Mastercrafter SethBling uploaded this video showing his fully-working Rubik’s cube, created entirely from standard Minecraft blocks:
[youtube url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUEUuurc9u4]
Download the world: SethBling’s RubiksCube
Visual Insight by John Baez
John Baez, the very first maths blogger, has started a new blog called Visual Insight. It’s hosted by the American Mathematical Society and is “a place to share striking images that help explain advanced topics in mathematics.”
So that’ll be nice.
Translate Numberphile, please / Traduisez Numberphile, s’il-vous-plaît / Bitte übersetzen Numberphile…
Numberphile is that cool YouTube channel with the videos about the numbers and the philes. You might remember them from the time they did that ace video about our integer sequence reviews. But if you’re unlucky enough not to understand the English as she is spoke, then that’s no use to you.
But it could be! Chief Numberphile Brady Haran has set up a page asking for translations of the videos, so everyone can enjoy them. As long as you’re fluent in one of the languages for which a video already has subtitles, the process is pretty simple: you download a caption file in one language, translate it into another, and upload it back to the site. And then you’ve done a good deed!
Brady’s just posted on Twitter that he’s already approved 24 translations since starting the project yesterday evening, so join your fellow Frenchmen/Flemings/Faroese and get translating. (I suggest you start with “Six Sequences”…)
Submit a translation: Translations for Numberphile at subtitl.us
Deligne Day: October 5, 2013
A bit of press release copy-pasting for you now, as the Simons Foundation announced a celebration of the mathematics of Pierre Deligne. When the release first went out it was called ‘Deligne Day’, but cooler heads have prevailed and it’s now “A Celebration of the Mathematics of Pierre Deligne”. It’s also my dad’s birthday, as it happens.