Double Maths First Thing is playing 1D chess.
Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the delight and joy of doing maths, and trying really hard to communicate that it’s not just about arithmetic.
The kids have finally gone back to school after the Easter break (where the 10yo is currently being crammed for the SATs, which appear to a large extent to be just about arithmetic). Hopefully I’ve done enough to convince him otherwise.
A quick apology to email readers: I misnumbered the last issue, which appeared to be a repeat of #52. We should be back on track today with #54. To make up for it, I’ve compiled some cracking links.
Links
You know who else doesn’t think maths is just arithmetic? Terry Tao and Zack Wienersmith, that’s who! (Although I note that an imaginary Erdős number is conferred via the wearing of Erdős’s coat – or the coat of someone who has worn the coat of someone with an Erdős number that’s not on the real line. Mine is thus \( 5+i \). Also, I left my jacket in Atlanta, so I hope there’s an enterprising janitor somewhere with an Erdos number of \( 2i \).)
Next up, an incredible discovery: a calculator with two buttons – one with the constant 1 and another with the function \( EML(x,y) = \exp(x) – \ln(y) \) – can (in principle) do everything a scientific calculator can.
Paper by Andrzej Odrzywołek here. This is a phenomenal thing to even think about, let alone figure out.
We’re still struggling with the switch to BST here, so I was heartened to learn from @amapanda about Universal Greeting Time – it’s always morning when someone shows up and evening when they leave.
The success of the Artemis II mission has led to a lot of amazing discussions on Mathstodon, including this Margaret Hamilton anecdote – her daughter crashed the computer and NASA said “no trained astronaut would ever do something so silly”. Guess what happened? There are also great comments in the source code, and a picture of Alan Cooper showing her around the Computer History Museum. If ever someone deserved to be the focus of a musical…
From Elliot Kienzle, slides to a talk about whether maths is big or small. Now I really want Brio track that work on torii.
Currently
Carnival of Mathematics #250 is up at Tom Rocks Maths! You can submit items for #251 (hosted by Karrie Liu) at the usual link.
Congratulations to Peter Rowlett for releasing his first issue of The Mathematical Gazette as editor. You can read more about The Mathematical Gazette here – I know Peter is keen to hear from contributors and reviewers.
Kevin Houston and Costas Loizou are running a free workshop on transitioning into education research, in Leeds and online on Wednesday April 29th. Register by this Friday (April 17th) to attend in-person or by Wednesday April 22nd to participate remotely.
If you’d like your 2D mathematical artwork to be featured at the ICM in Philadelphia, you can let IMAGINARY know about it here. Deadline is April 30.
The LMS Spitalfields History Of Mathematics Meeting and Hirst Lecture are on Friday April 17th at De Morgan House, Russell Square, London from 2:30pm. Online tickets are available; the speakers are Dr Brigitte Stenhouse and Professor June Barrow-Green, who will be talking about Mary Somerville and Hilda Hudson, respectively.
Rounding off a lot of currently, it’s also MathsJam Tuesday next week (April 21st) – show up to one near you, or start your own, and have a play with some puzzles. (I still haven’t quite figured out the circle one from last time. I’ve got an answer, but not a solution.)
That’s all I’ve got for this week. If you have friends and/or colleagues who would enjoy Double Maths First Thing, do send them the link to sign up – they’ll be very welcome here.
If you’ve missed the previous issues of DMFT or – somehow – this one, you can find the archive courtesy of my dear friends at the Aperiodical.
Meanwhile, if there’s something I should know about, you can find me on Mathstodon as @icecolbeveridge, or at my personal website. You can also just reply to this email if there’s something you want to tell me.
Until next time,
C
Edited 2026-04-15 to close a bracket two separate brackets. Thanks, Mair!