Today I spent an enjoyable time at Pi-hunting – the story of a mathematical obsession, run by the British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM) at the British Science Festival 2010. Part of this included a presentation by Noel-Ann Bradshaw on mnemonics to remember the digits of pi. An example is the following: How…
Dear all: Change of job, email
I just sent this message as an email to a list of people I know but haven’t told my new address to yet. This included my email address which, if you didn’t receive this and need to know it, you can pick up on the MSOR Network HE STEM webpage. I am no longer working…
Prime birthdays: James Grime phenomenon
In working out prime birthdays, James Grime remarked that his 1331th prime birthday would be “extra special”, and left it to his followers to work out why. The answer, of course, is that it is also his annual birthday. This is an interesting phenomenon: when he is 10957 days old, James Grime will also be…
Prime birthdays via Wolfram|Alpha
Recently on Twitter, Matt Parker (standupmaths) and James Grime (jamesgrime) were having a “nerd slamdown” working out next prime birthdays. This is the next date when the number of days since you were born is a prime. Here’s how to work this out in Wolfram|Alpha. For the purposes of this example, let’s choose an arbitrary…
On the Decline of Mathematical Studies, and ever was it so
When I started taking an interest in university mathematics teaching back in 2003/4, I quickly became aware of a report “Measuring the Mathematics Problem” (2000; also the 1995 Tackling the Mathematics Problem). This describes a decline in standards of students entering university and looks to serve as a call to arms to take action to…
Teaching/research importance
Just looking out some stories for the Math/Maths Podcast and, from Tony Mann’s Twitter stream, I came across a review in the New York Times of a facsimile of The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid: In Which Coloured Diagrams and Symbols Are Used Instead of Letters for the Greater Ease of Learners,…
What is the Math/Maths Podcast?
Just over a year ago, I wrote a post, “Echoes in an empty room“, about how wonderful it was to hear someone who listens to Travels in a Mathematical World describe the podcast in their own words. It can be a strange and isolated experience recording podcasts and it is always encouraging to hear from…