An IMA/LMS press release points out that A-level and AS-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics entries are continuing to rise. The number of A-level Mathematics entries is up 3.3% on last year, with AS Mathematics increasing by 5.1%. Further Mathematics also continues to grow, with entries increasing by 7.6% at A-level this year and 12.9% at…
Engineered paper by Matthew Shlian
[vimeo url=http://vimeo.com/47502276] Matthew Shlian sculpts paper by folding and cutting it.
Bill Thurston has died
William Thurston died yesterday of cancer, aged 65. Thurston was one of the greatest contemporary mathematicians; a huge figure in low-dimensional topology. I won’t bother writing out a mathematical biography – Wikipedia and MacTutor have all the relevant information, as usual, and I won’t pretend I know a huge amount about the exact details of Thurston’s…
Knitted Spiky Icosahedron
As an avid knitter, and mathematician, the birth of a small human in my family inspired me to create a mathematical toy for the tiny person to enjoy while learning about shapes. With my favourite platonic solid being the icosahedron, it was the obvious choice for a knitted toy, and with stellation being all the…
The Guardian’s open access round-up
These open access round-ups I’ve been doing are a good idea, eh? The Guardian agrees: they’ve posted their own open access round up. It’s less of a “what’s new” and more of a “the story so far”, though.
Math/Maths 108: Not burdened with modern theories
A new episode of the Math/Maths Podcast has been released. A conversation about mathematics between the UK and USA from Pulse-Project.org. This week Samuel and Peter spoke about: new 11-set Venn diagram; In Defense of Algebra; Understanding maths ‘more important than learning by rote’; A glider on an aperiodic cellular automaton exists!; Human cycles: History…
David’s de Bruijn sequence card trick
A few days ago, my friend David asked me if I could help him with a card trick. I said I could, hence this post. I managed to pin David down in front of my camera long enough for him to demonstrate the trick; a full explanation follows this video: