These days, keeping up with the news can sometimes feel like a maths exam. We face a constant barrage of figures, whether through national budgets,…
View More How to read the news like a mathematician – from the budget and HS2 to Covid and sportTag: Mathematics
The 10 biggest science stories of 2022 – chosen by scientists
1. The Dart and Orion missions The year opened with a bang. Or rather, it didn’t. The successful film Don’t Look Up, in which a…
View More The 10 biggest science stories of 2022 – chosen by scientistsCan you solve it? Can you battle like a maths wizard?
What do you get when you combine mathematics with debating? You get a “maths battle”, an event for secondary school students in which two teams…
View More Can you solve it? Can you battle like a maths wizard?Can you solve it? Do you have the mind of an engineer?
If you have ever strolled along the Macclesfield canal you may have walked across a ‘snake bridge’, like the one above, in which one side…
View More Can you solve it? Do you have the mind of an engineer?Did you solve it? Intrigue at the pet hotel
Earlier today I set you these three puzzles by the Japanese setter Tadao Kitazawa, 1. The Pet Hotel In the Pet Hotel, the rooms are…
View More Did you solve it? Intrigue at the pet hotelCan you solve it? An Oxford University admissions question
Today’s puzzle concerns contestants in a fictitious game show trying to win £1m. It was also once given to a different sort of contestant competing…
View More Can you solve it? An Oxford University admissions questionCan you solve it? The viral maths video that will have you in stitches
“Hey Google, what’s the factorial of 100?” There are several clips doing the rounds of what happens when you ask Google Assistant this question. The…
View More Can you solve it? The viral maths video that will have you in stitchesCan you solve it? The man who changed the course of magic
David Copperfield’s History of Magic is a beautiful new book by the eponymous magician (coauthored with psychologist Richard Wiseman and magician David Britland), which tells…
View More Can you solve it? The man who changed the course of magicCan you solve it? The playful genius of Hungarian puzzles
When it comes to the world of mathematical puzzles, Hungary is a superpower. Not just because of the Rubik’s cube, the iconic toy invented by…
View More Can you solve it? The playful genius of Hungarian puzzlesCan you solve it? Hamiltonian ingenuity on the grid
No, not that Hamilton. I meant William Rowan Hamilton, the nineteenth century Irish mathematician. And not that sort of grid. I meant a square grid,…
View More Can you solve it? Hamiltonian ingenuity on the grid