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Carnival of Maths #241

By Katie Steckles. Posted August 4, 2025



Welcome to the 241st Carnival of Mathematics, hosted here at the home of the Carnival, The Aperiodical. The Aperiodical is a shared blog written and curated by Katie Steckles (me), Christian Lawson-Perfect and Peter Rowlett, where we share interesting maths news and content, aimed at people who already know they like maths and would like to know more. The Carnival of Maths is administered by the Aperiodical, and if you’d like to host one on your own blog or see previous editions, you can visit the Carnival of Maths page.

Interview: Kyle Evans on his 2023 Fringe show, Maths at the Museum

By Katie Steckles. Posted July 26, 2023



We spoke to friend of the site, award-winning maths communicator and past math-off competitor Kyle Evans about his Edinburgh Fringe show for 2023, which is about maths.

π-ku Poetry Competition – Results

By Katie Steckles. Posted July 17, 2020



A few weeks ago, we asked you to write some mathematical poetry – π-ku, which are a bit like Haiku but instead of the structure 5-7-5, they use the more classical 3-1-4 format (and it doesn’t just have to be syllables – valid π-ku can also use 3, 1 and 4 words on each line, if you prefer).

You responded in large quantities – across Twitter and email, we received over 100 entries, from fun ditties to serious, beautiful poems. Since none of us here at the Aperiodical are particularly well-versed (pun intended) in poetry, we consulted maths/poetry aficionado and special guest judge JoAnne Growney, who runs a blog collating mathematical poems over at Poetry With Mathematics.

Poetry competition: π-ku

By Katie Steckles. Posted June 19, 2020



Since some people might be looking for small momentary diversions around now to take their mind off things, we’re running a little poetry competition!

Ning Nang Nong Latin square

By Peter Rowlett. Posted February 27, 2019

My son is obsessed with the Spike Milligan nonsense poem ‘On the Ning Nang Nong’. Here’s a video of Spike reciting it.

This weekend, he asked me to help him learn it. I’ve tried to memorise it before, to save having to find the book when he wants me to recite it. But somehow, it’s never quite stuck. I can remember all the bits and the basic order (Cows-Trees-Mice), and know what happens after the lines ending “Nong” (“Cows go bong”), “Ning” (“Trees go ping”) and “Nang” (“Mice go clang”). What I struggle with is remembering which order the “Ning”, “Nang” and “Nong” go before the one that rhymes with what comes next. 

At the weekend, I wrote “Ning”, “Nang” and “Nong” on pieces of paper and we rearranged them as we read the poem. I realised my difficulty is a mathematician pattern-spotting one. There’s a not-quite Latin square embedded in the poem.

Relatively Prime Recap: Season 2, Episode 4: Diegetic Plots, Chapter 1

By Colin Beveridge. Posted January 30, 2016



On top of the usual disclosures, I should add that Dave Gale and I interviewed Samuel Hansen this week for our Wrong, But Useful podcast, which you might like to listen to for a deeper insight into Samuel’s brain.

During the conversation, he warned me I wouldn’t like Episode 4 of the new Relatively Prime, “Diegetic Plots, Chapter 1”. I don’t know if that was expectation management or an elaborate double bluff, but the joke’s on you, Hansen: I jolly well did like it, so there!

π and constrained writing

By Katie Steckles. Posted March 14, 2015

It’s a tool; a ratio, providing us simple rules for doing circular estimates. Admired regularly – and we all remember that today’s pi! Hooray! Let’s eat pie.

You may have noticed that the first paragraph of this article was immensely poorly written, and didn’t sound like good writing at all. And you’d be right – except writing it wasn’t easy as you’d think. I’ve written it under a constraint – that is, I’ve picked an arbitrary rule to follow, and have had to choose my words carefully in order to do so.