I don’t want to alarm you, but I blew up the Gherkin* today. Wait – don’t call the police just yet. It wasn’t really real. I’ve been doing some catastrophe modelling at work. It’s pretty interesting stuff, really. I get to see what the impacts of all sorts of unlikely events are. You’ll be happy to hear, I’m sure, that the probability of someone doing … Continue reading Monday Maths: Extreme Probabilities
As promised, this week I’m going to see if I can make the results of last week’s survey a little more fun than just a list of numbers. The Survey I should point out at this point that my sample size is not huge. Although, considering my number of followers, I’ve got a reasonable conversion ratio. About 8.5% of my followers answered the questions, which … Continue reading Monday Maths: Graphical Fun
One of the things that Brownies can choose to do for their “Number Fun” badge is: Carry out a survey of at least 20 people and share the results with the tester. The survey must include at least five questions. We quite often use this one on Brownie Holidays as a way of gathering feedback on the event. We suggest a couple of questions for … Continue reading Monday Maths: Surveys
Today we’re looking at someone who is famous, and was a mathematician, but is not famous for being a mathematician. Florence Nightingale. I’m always entertained by what “everyone knows” about famous people. In this case, “everyone knows” that Florence Nightingale was a nurse, and was famous for being a nurse and looking after people during a war. Most people aren’t sure which war, when or … Continue reading Monday Maths: Mathematical (Role) Models, Part 4
Who says mathematicians have no sense of humour? Here are a selection of my favourite maths and number-related jokes. Read at your own risk. There are three types of people in the world. Those who can count, and those who can’t. There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don’t. Q. How can you prove that a … Continue reading Monday Maths: Mathematical Jokes
Today’s mathematical role model is a woman I can really respect. She wanted a career in a particular field, and was told that only men could do that. So she went out and snuck in the back door, and ended up saving lives while doing it. Her name was Florence Nightingale David. (Not related, although she was named after the famous one. For reasons of … Continue reading Monday Maths: Mathematical (Role) Models Part 3
I am not the first person to claim that maths can be fun. Just to clarify, nobody has actually claimed that I was. Recently, anyway. I’m not even the first person to write about it. Philosophy and Fun of Algebra, Logic Taught by Love, and Miss Education and Her Garden are all books written about maths and mathematical education, by the same person, way back … Continue reading Monday Maths: Mathematical (Role) Models Part 2
You may think that I’m making this up. I promise I’m not. Pancake Numbers are real. Imagine you have a stack of pancakes, of different sizes. You want to arrange them with the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top. You have a spatula, which you are allowed to insert anywhere in the stack. When you do, you can flip the stack … Continue reading Monday Maths: Pancake Numbers
In the world of STEM (that’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) there is a terrible lack of role models for girls. Who is there to encourage us, to remind us that it’s not just for boys? Enter Ada Lovelace. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, to be more accurate, although nearly everyone calls her Ada Lovelace these days. She lived from 1815 to 1852, and … Continue reading Monday Maths: Mathematical (Role) Models
What is a happy number? How can a number have emotions? Can you get sad numbers? Depressed numbers? Maybe angry numbers? Start with any positive integer. Replace the number with the sum of the squares of its digits. Keep going, and if you eventually reach 1 then the number is a happy number. For example 19. 1×1 + 9×9 = 1 + 81 = 82 … Continue reading Monday Maths: Happy Numbers
The 57th Snowflake 