For my recent birthday I was given a wonderful present: a special UK stamp commemorating Alan Turing, who was born 100 years ago today. The stamp was issued by the Royal Mail not for the Turing centenary but as one of a series of special stamp sets to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. This stamp…
Unusual prime number competition results
Author Robin Sloan offered a simple competition: give me a prime number of your choosing. I’ll send books to the five people who choose the lowest unique prime numbers. So, if you pick 2 but seven other people pick 2, no book for you. If you pick 3 and no one else picks 3, you…
Tony Mann to lecture on ‘Computing Mathematics’ at Gresham College
Tony Mann from the University of Greenwich has been appointed Visiting Professor of Computing Mathematics at Gresham College, London. This means he will deliver a series of free public lectures will look at the mathematics of computing, and the computing of mathematics. The lectures will consider what can go wrong, how computers sometimes get the…
Tickets now available for the opening of the Museum of Mathematics in New York
Tickets are now available to the Opening Ceremony of the New York Museum of Mathematics on 12-12-12. Register here: Museum of Mathematics Opening Ceremony.
Historical anniversaries: are they worth celebrating?
It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that this year marks 100 years since Alan Turing was born, and that the actual anniversary of his birth is tomorrow. There is massive interest in this fact, both from specialist maths and computing outlets and the mainstream press. What, though, is the significance? You don’t need me to…
Aperiodcast – 21/06/2012
Here’s another Aperiodcast, covering things that happened on the site between the 4th and the 20th of June. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: RSS | List of episodes
Ability with fractions and division aged 10 predicts ability with algebra aged 16
Last week we reported that the UK Government have released a draft primary school Programme of Study for mathematics for consultation. A report from the Telegraph quoted in that article mentioned that “the use and multiplication of fractions” was “a vital precursor to studying algebra”. A piece of research published in the journal Psychological Science,…