Here’s the second match in Round 1 of The Big Internet Math-Off. Today, we’re pitting Angela Tabiri against Max Hughes. 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…
The Big Internet Math-Off 2024, Round 1, Match 1
It’s math-off time! Here’s the first match in this year’s Big Internet Math-Off. Today, we’re pitting Katie Steckles against Benjamin Dickman. 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,…
4. Prime-number Pattern
I’m slowly working to (sort of) recreate Martin Gardner’s cover images from Scientific American, the so-called Gardner’s Dozen. This time it’s the turn of the March 1964 issue. In the article ‘The remarkable lore of the prime numbers’, later included as chapter 9 in Martin Gardner’s Sixth Book of Mathematical Games from Scientific American, Gardner…
Announcing the Big Internet Math-Off 2024
In 2018 I ran a just-for-fun competition to find “The World’s Most Interesting Mathematician”. It was so much fun that I ran it again in 2019 and 2020. And then big things happened in my life and the wider world and I haven’t had the energy to do it again. Until now!
From Zero to Hero: a Euclidean proof
It used to live, unloved, in the A-level formula book: a mysterious result relating the area of a triangle to its sides. The most interesting thing about it was its name: Heron’s formula. (As far as I can make out, the chap’s name was Hero of Alexandria, and if you do a possessive in Greek…
Aperiodical News Roundup – May 2024
Here’s a round-up of some of the mathematical news we saw last month. Maths News Thomas Hales and Koundinya Vajjha have claimed a proof of Mahler’s first conjecture, that the most unpackable centrally symmetric convex disk in the plane is a smoothed polygon. (via Greg Egan) There’s also a been a proof of the geometric…
Particularly mathematical Birthday Honours 2024
The UK Government have announced the new set of King’s Birthday Honours. Here’s our selection of particularly mathematical entries for this year. If you spot any more, let us know in the comments and we’ll add to the list. Get the full list from gov.uk. Spot anyone we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments.