This is part 2 of a three-part series of mathematical speculations about bees. Part 1 looked at honeycomb geometry. Honeybees scout for nesting sites in tree cavities and other nooks and crannies, and need to know whether a chamber is large enough to contain all the honey necessary to feed their colony throughout the winter. A volume of less…
Manchester MathsJam recap, January 2015
Manchester’s first MathsJam of 2015 (and indeed, all the other first MathsJams of 2015 in cities all over the world) met on 20th January, rousing us all from a Christmas-induced slumber and gently easing us back into a year of recreational maths. Here’s a round-up of what we did.
Follow Friday: 13/2/15
Remember when we used to do a regular Follow Friday post, recommending mathematically interesting Twitter accounts? Well, this is like that, only not hugely regular. Enjoy it while it lasts!
Axis is Missile Command for mathematicians
Axis is a retro-styled game a bit like Missile Command crossed with a graphing calcuator. Instead of pointing a turret and trying to estimate a parabolic trajectory ending at one of your enemies, your shot follows the path of any function $y=f(x)$ you can think of.
Witness the awesome power of maths!
This happened on the BBC’s University Challenge this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOOsLvSfQAY&feature=youtu.be Jeremy Paxman might never recover from having his mind so thoroughly blown.
Carnival of Mathematics 119
The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of January, and compiled by Frederick Koh, is now online at White Group Mathematics. The Carnival rounds up maths blog posts from all over the internet, including some from our own Aperiodical. See our Carnival of Mathematics page for more information.
Turing round-up, February 2015
I just want to be done with Alan Turing posts, but stuff keeps happening. Here’s a very brief round-up of some recent Turing news: There’s a petition to Pardon all convicted gay men, not just Alan Turing. Sign it or don’t or write 12,000 words hemming and hawing about it all. Up to you. This is…