To celebrate Christopher Zeeman’s 90th birthday and their own 150th, the London Mathematical Society have opened an online archive of Sir Christopher’s work.
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Pi Day 2015: The Aperiodical goes π mad
Happy π day everyone! I hope you’re having a great day, and having lots of fun mathematical parties.
You may have noticed that here at The Aperiodical, we’ve been posting exciting π-related items all week – and here’s a list of them all, collected into one handy place. Enjoy!
Pi Day on Twitter
We can’t hope to keep up with all the π action around the internet today, so here’s a live stream of #piday tweets.
Matt Parker approximates π by weighing a circle
Stand-up mathematician Matt Parker has accepted our π approximation challenge. His method involves weighing a large cardboard circle.
So, how did that go? Fortunately, Matt got it all on video:
I think he deserves a round of applause for doing all that long division.
Cédric Villani’s Birth of a Theorem is Radio 4 Book of the Week
Birth of a Theorem, the autobiographical book by French mathematician and (spoiler) Fields Medallist Cédric Villani, is Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 this week, read by non-French non-mathematician Julian Rhind-Tutt. Villani also appeared on discussion show Start the Week on Monday, talking about ‘the mathematical mind’ along with mathematician Vicky Neale; Morgan Matthews, director of kid-does-maths film X+Y; and novelist Zia Haider Rahman.
Video: The Aperiodical’s π approximation challenge
As part of our massive π day celebrations, The Aperiodical has challenged me with the task of assembling a group of mathematicians, some bits of cardboard and string, and a video camera, and attempting to determine the exact value of π, for your entertainment.
The challenge, which was to be completed without a calculator, involved using known mathematical formulae for π and its occurrence in the equations of certain physical systems. In the video below, seven different methods are used – some more effective than others…
If you reckon you too can ineptly compute a value in the region of π (in particular, if you can get a more accurate approximation than the date of π day itself, which gives 3.1415), feel free to join in the challenge and see how close you get.
George Boole at 200
Happy birthday AND many happy returns to George Boole, 200 this year!
The Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, has helped launch University College Cork’s year of festivities celebrating Boole, their first professor of maths and the inventor of Boolean algebra.
The year’s activities will include the restoration of Boole’s first home in Cork, an official film biography, an art exhibition of “contermporary art and mathematical data”, three conferences in maths and computer science, and of course a youth outreach programme. All the relevant information is available at a swishy new site set up for the purpose, georgeboole.com.
I’ve heard the year will end with a celebratory curry – and plenty of NAND bread to go around! Geddit?! (groan – Ed.)
More information
An Taoiseach launches George Boole celebrations – press release from University College Cork
Via Irish Maths Archive on Twitter