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The Big Internet Math-Off 2019, Group 1 – Alex Corner vs Lucy Rycroft-Smith

By Christian Lawson-Perfect. Posted July 1, 2019

Welcome to The Big Internet Math-Off! Over the next month, 16 intrepid mathematicians are going to be sharing some of their favourite bits of maths in a series of head-to-head matches that will leave all of us mathematically enriched and all but one of them wishing they’d read more Martin Gardner.

The tournament starts today with our first match in group 1: Alex Corner vs Lucy Rycroft-Smith. They’ve each made a pitch for a fun bit of maths, which is below, and at the end of this post there’s a poll where you can vote for your favourite bit of maths.

If you know any more cool facts about either of the topics presented here, please write a comment below!

So, without further ado, let’s once more toot Gabriel’s Horn and start The Big Internet Math-Off for 2019! First up is Alex Corner.

Announcing the Big Internet Math-Off 2019

By Christian Lawson-Perfect. Posted June 17, 2019

Because we all had so much fun last year, we’re running a second edition of the internet’s hottest maths competition:

Continuing our mission to provide alternative summer knock-out tournaments that don’t involve grassy fields, we’ve invited 16 more fun maths people to tell us about some fun maths things.

The Big Internet Math-Off – The end

By Christian Lawson-Perfect. Posted August 3, 2018

It’s all over! The votes are in, they have been counted, and I can announce that the winner of The Big Internet Math-Off is:

Nira Chamberlain!

Massive congratulations to Nira, you may now refer to yourself as The World’s Most Interesting Mathematician*.

* of the 16 people I asked to take part, who were available in July, and wanted to play.

Nira’s pitch on applied mathematics won 56% of the vote in the final, with 1207 votes against 960 for Matt Parker’s pitch on naive fraction addition.

I don’t get applied maths – it never appealed strongly to me – so I really appreciated Nira sharing his obvious enjoyment of it. And apparently so did the voters!

The Big Internet Math-Off – The Final! Nira Chamberlain v Matt Parker

By Christian Lawson-Perfect. Posted July 24, 2018

Well, this is it: the final of The Big Internet Math-Off. Just one more match stands between the two remaining competitors and their destiny: the title of World’s Most Interesting Mathematician (modulo the previously described factors of knowing me, interest in taking part, and availability in July to indulge my whimsy).

Nira Chamberlain and Matt Parker each have one pitch left to wow you and get your little grey cells a-quivering. So what have they picked? Find out below!

There’s no twist in the format for the final round, the rules are the same as always: take a look at both pitches, vote for the bit of maths that made you do the loudest “Aha!”, and if you know any more cool facts about either of the topics presented here, please write a comment!

So, with all that said, let’s begin the final round of THE BIG INTERNET MATH-OFF!

The Big Internet Math-Off: Cheering from the sidelines

By Christian Lawson-Perfect. Posted July 22, 2018

Benjamin Leis has been giving some top commentary on the Math-Off matches as they happen, on Twitter. We asked him to share some of his thoughts in more detail

We’re almost at the final of the Big Math-Off and I, your humble and slightly quirky commentator, thought I’d take a look back at the highlights so far. First of all, the format itself is genius. Why go to the beach when you could instead be rooting on for your favorite theorem or mathematical phenomenon? But if you somehow have missed any of the rounds so far, the posts live on and you should take the time to read them all.

Rather than exhaustively survey all the entries so far I thought I would highlight a few that struck a chord with me and what about them was interesting. So first up, since I’m involved in running a middle school math club, I’m always looking for ideas that will transfer to that setting. That generally means: ones only requiring inexpensive easy to procure materials, an idea that requires no more than Algebra and Geometry and which also has a good hook and most importantly, but which rules out a few otherwise excellent entries, it needs to be something that I haven’t done already.

The Big Internet Math-Off semi-final 2 – Edmund Harriss v Matt Parker

By Christian Lawson-Perfect. Posted July 19, 2018

This is nearly it: the second semi-final of The Big Internet Math-Off, pitting Edmund Harriss against Matt Parker.

The rules are the same as always: take a look at both pitches, vote for the bit of maths that made you do the loudest “Aha!”, and if you know any more cool facts about either of the topics presented here, please write a comment below!

The Big Internet Math-Off Semi-Final 1 – Nira Chamberlain v Zoe Griffiths

By Christian Lawson-Perfect. Posted July 18, 2018

This is the penultimate round of the hottest contest of the summer, The Big Internet Math-Off. We’re down to 4 competitors, each raring at the bit to show us more fun maths. In this first semi-final, we’re pitting Nira Chamberlain against Zoe Griffiths.