I made a silly joke, and it made me think. You may be aware that our own Christian Lawson-Perfect is running the Big Internet Math-Off here at the Aperiodical, a single-elimination tournament with sixteen competitors. I was knocked out in round one by the brilliant Alison Kiddle. I joked that if Alison went on to…
Here’s the second match in round 2 of The Big Internet Math-Off. Today we’re pitting Matt Parker against Jo Morgan. The rules are the same as in round 1: 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…
This is the third match in round 2 of The Big Internet Math-Off. Today we’re pitting Evelyn Lamb against Zoe Griffiths. The rules are the same as in round 1: 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…
Here’s the second match in round 2 of The Big Internet Math-Off. Today we’re pitting Paul Taylor against Edmund Harriss. The rules are the same as in round 1: 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…
It’s the start of round 2 of the Math-Off, and we’ve already seen some excellent maths. 16 competitors are now 8, and they’re fighting for a place in the semi-final. The first round 2 match is between Nira Chamberlain and Alison Kiddle. The rules are still the same: take a look at both pitches, vote…
Rest in Peace, Alexander Bogomolny @CutTheKnotMath Devastating news. He was of the few saints you meet in life: He gave more, much more than he took. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) July 8, 2018 Alexander Bogomolny was a mathematician and educator well known for his website Cut the Knot, which offered interactive mathematical miscellany and…
This week’s episode of More or Less on the BBC World Service answered a question that involved estimating big numbers: Are there more stars than grains of beach sand? This claim was famously made by Carl Sagan in the seminal programme Cosmos. The cosmos is rich beyond measure. The number of stars in the universe…