A new post is available over at Second-Rate Minds by Peter Rowlett. The light bulb puzzle presents you with three switches, one of which controls a light bulb inside a closed room. You are permitted to flip switches as much as you like, then you must open the door and say which switch controls the…
Favourite popular mathematics books
I consider popular mathematics writing to be a good thing. I even tried a little myself and would be keen to try more. I am not, however, an expert in this genre. I certainly read popular maths and science books as a teenager and I remember fondly, along with a couple of physics books and…
E-Learning in Mathematical Subjects
In 2005 I was asked to attend a meeting at Nottingham Trent University with some fellow PhD students. I explained my topic, e-learning in university mathematics, to one student who said, “oh, you should go and talk to Mike in Physics; he’s interested in that sort of thing”. When I found him, it turned out…
Paula Swisheer
Paula Swisheer: She literally got her art in my maths!
The sign on my office door
Recently, someone left my office at Newcastle University and a new person took their place, so we needed a new sign on our front door. I wanted to do something clever with it, but it needed to be instantly legible to lost supervisors trying to find their students. My first thought was that since there…
What is mathematics?
This morning on Twitter Tony Mann asked the question: “This morning’s class is “What is Mathematics?” Answers in a tweet please.” Answers were collected via the #MATH1103 hashtag. Some of the answers were what you might expect: patterns, abstraction, order. Stuart Ravn sent a series of tweets giving his views: Math is everything you can…
Shadow Pavilion by PLY Architecture
Shadow Pavilion by PLY Architecture: