On the Children in Need special episode of Qi one of the topics covered was Bertrand Russell‘s work on Principia Mathematica and particularly the proof that 1+1=2. Although a lot of the discussion was frivolous, it did contain some nice comments (the proof described as “an extraordinary achievment” and Russell described as “a remarkable man”…
Podcast: Episode 7 – Neil Goldwasser – Dyslexia Support and Adult Numeracy
These are the show notes for episode 7 of the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast. 7 is prime, and the numbers on opposite sides of a regular six-sided die always add to 7. More about the number 7 from thesaurus.maths.org. This week on the podcast we hear from Neil Goldwasser. Neil is a maths…
Podcast: Episode 6 – History with Noel-Ann Bradshaw – Galois
These are the show notes for episode 6 of the Travels in a Mathematical World podcast. 6 is the minimum number of colors that is always sufficient to color any map on a Möbius strip. More about the Möbius strip from The Math Forum and a discussion of the colouring problem at Ask Dr. Math.…
Nerd Sniping
Earlier, I reported on my visit to the Manchester careers fair, Calculating Careers, in which I used some mathematical puzzles to attract potential careers advice recipients to my stall. I just discovered that my attempt to draw people in using mathematical curiosities may be related to the practice described in this documentary piece.
Calculating Careers in Manchester
This week I attended the event “Calculating Careers”, a mathematics careers fair at the University of Manchester. I found this a really enjoyable afternoon. I ran an IMA stall in a hall of stalls from employers. I thought a lot about how to run this. I didn’t want to come across as another employer that…
Podcast: Episode 5 – Nira Chamberlain, Mathematical Modelling Consultant
Episode 5. The smallest number of queens needed to attack every square on a standard chess board is five. More facts about the number 5 at numbergossip.com and for more about chessboard domination and similar problems a good starting place is the wikipedia article “Eight queens puzzle”. In this episode of the podcast we hear…
Thinking Mathematically in Greenwich
Last week I attended an event of the University of Greenwich Mathsoc, “Thinking Mathematically and Learning Mathematics Mathematically” by John Mason. This was very enjoyable, with some interesting problems to highlight aspects of the way people think about mathematics. Nice to exercise my mathematical muscle every now and then. I took the opportunity when crossing…