In this series of posts, we’ll be featuring mathematical podcasts from all over the internet, by speaking to the creators of the podcast and asking them about what they do.
We spoke to Alaric Stephen, maths teacher and one of the two hosts of the Odds and Evenings podcast, along with Alex Mayall.
Last year I wrote about a 3D-printed puzzle I’d designed, called Seven Triples.
At work we want to use this puzzle during an A-Level enrichment day, which means we need about twenty copies of it. I 3D-printed four copies over the course of a couple of weeks, in amongst other jobs, and I don’t have the patience to do any more. So, I’ve made a 2D version that we can print and cut out much more quickly.
There are a collection of 23 maths-based puzzles appearing at a rate of one-per-weekday through August over at the Isaac Newton Institute. Their website explains “They won’t require sophisticated maths to solve, but equally they won’t be easy. Discussing your ideas might help.”
For example, here is the teaser puzzle, £8.19:
Two players play a game.Given that they are both perfect logicians and strategists, who wins?
- They each start with an unlimited number of coins of denominations: 1p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p and 100p.
- They take it in turns putting coins into a pot one at a time.
- The winner is the person who places the final coin into the pot reaching the target total of £8.19.
- A player automatically loses if they exceed the target total.
Answers will be revealed at the end of the month, and you are invited to submit your answers for a chance to be named as a person or group who submitted one of the first few correct answers.
At the time of writing, there are 6 puzzles still to be revealed, and 17 puzzles are live. Check out the Summer Maths Puzzles website, or search Twitter, Facebook or Instagram for #SummerMathsPuzzles.
Happy puzzling!
Exams have a nasty habit of sucking the joy out of a subject. My interest in proper literature was dulled by A-Level English, and I celebrated my way out of several GCSE papers – in subjects I’d picked because I enjoyed them – saying “I’ll never have to do that again.”
Geometry is a topic that generally suffers badly from this – but fortunately, Ed Southall and Vincent Pantaloni’s Geometry Snacks is here to set that right.
The Open University and UK Mathematics Trust have teamed up to launch Perplex, a mobile app containing mathematical puzzles and games. It’s available for iPhone and Android, and can also be played directly on their website.
Welcome to #104 of the Math Teachers At Play (MTaP) blog carnival. A blog carnival is a regular blogging round up coordinated by someone (in this case Denise Gaskins) that moves around different blogs each edition. This time, I’m taking a turn.
Puzzlebomb is a monthly puzzle compendium. Issue 60 of Puzzlebomb, for December 2016, can be found here:
Puzzlebomb – Issue 60 – December 2016 (printer-friendly version)
The solutions to Issue 59 can be found here:
Puzzlebomb – Issue 60 – December 2016 – Solutions
This will be the last regular monthly Puzzlebomb – in future, there will be occasional one-offs but regular editions are taking a break. If you have any ideas for puzzles, please send them in! Previous issues of Puzzlebomb, and their solutions, can be found here.