Ben Sparks

David's blog is worth a read, but I suggest first trying to marshall your thoughts about *why* the central diagram does in fact represent independent events correctly.

A collection of nine diagrams. Each is a ten-by-ten grid with a four-by-five rectangle in its bottom left corner shaded with wavy lines. Each also has a five-by-six rectangle shaded in grey, overlapping with the wavy-shaded rectangle by a different amount in each diagram. They each have a label underneath too. In the first diagram, the grey rectangle covers the wavy-shaded rectangle completely and the label says “Not independent”. In the second diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 15 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the third diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 12 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the fourth diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 8 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the fifth diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 6 squares and the label says “Independent!” in capital letters. In the sixth diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 4 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the seventh diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 2 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the eighth diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 1 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the ninth diagram, the two rectangles do not overlap and the label says “Not independent”.

This came up in the staff meeting today: how the ordinary English meaning of the word “independent” does not describe at all how a Venn diagram looks, and what to do to fix that. #MathSky www.adelaide.edu.au/mathslearnin...

Lovely stuff David, thanks for sharing this again. You've made me upgrade my vocabulary to include "area-proportional Venn diagrams". Better late than never!

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Sadly no on the puzzle, and happily yes on getting home. At 0140.

Feel like a chump for even trying to use public transport. If the 0015 service does arrive I will still have spent 2hrs 20mins of my day standing on tarmac looking expectantly down the road for overdue and apparently ghostly bus services, while paying for the privilege.

Then at Bristol Airport the A4 Air Decker 2330 service simply didn't show up (I was waiting from 2300 or so). Currently still waiting, angry, hoping a 0015 bus might arrive to take me home, maybe.

Also in Glasgow, at 1755, I waited 45 mins for a no. 500 Airport Express service (they run every 10-12 mins apparently). Digital signs pronounced the imminent arrival of 3 500 buses in this time. None showed up (until 1840).

It's been a day of First Bus fails.
In Glasgow, waited 20 mins for a no. 8 to show up this morning. No show. Had to catch a no. 90 instead.

A data scientist pointing to a graph on a screen

This term the AMSP is running a 'Maths into Data Science and AI' course for #ALevelMaths students. An online 11-week assessed course that introduces them to Python for data and machine learning.

1st cohort starts late September - you can sign your students up now at: amsp.org.uk/event/4d4629...

Teachers on a professional development course

We've got a new PD course for #ALevelMaths teachers: The Maths of Data Science and AI.

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Yes, though I think that meaning has come from the fact that 'moot' meant a meeting.
(i.e. a place where things are debated... hence a moot point is debatable)

I remember learning about ancient 'moot sites' where gatherings occurred... Or remember the 'Entmoot' in Tolkien's LOTR.

(also could obviously be me reading too much into similar sounding words...)

I feel like both of those could conceivably contain some sense of being 'made to' gather for war or ceremonial purposes...

Is there any connection with muster (to gather?) and moot (meeting? Possibly archaic?).

(I ask without doing any research myself, yet)

Video descriptions 2025-26 Maths video of the week #1 Hi everyone! Each week we’ll be linking to a different interesting or thought-provoking video relating to the world of mathematics. We see the numbers “million” and “billion” a lot, both in maths and in everyday life, but it can be difficult to visualise their relative sizes. In this week’s video, Tom Scott demonstrates the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars. You may want to watch the first 2-3 minutes then skip ahead to a couple of minutes from the end, as there is a lot of driving in the middle! A Million Dollars vs A Billion Dollars, Visualised: A Road Trip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YUWDrLazCg Maths video of the week #2 Fermat’s Last Theorem is one of the most well-known theorems in mathematics. It was first stated by Pierre de Fermat in 1637 but was not proven until 1994 by English mathematician Andrew Wiles, who has studied and worked at Oxford, Cambridge and Princeton. In this week’s video Simon Singh introduces the theorem, and explains a little of the history of how it was finally proven. Singh has written a number of popular science and mathematics books (including one on Fermat’s Last Theorem) which are very engaging and recommended if you are looking for some super-curricular reading for mathematics. This could be just for your own interest, or to mention in a UCAS personal statement or interview. Fermat's Last Theorem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiNcEguuFSA

A list of maths video links on YouTube in a table with the title Video of the week 2025-2026

This year, I'm going to reinstate Maths Video of the Week, which I send out on Teams to our A Level Maths students (I've let it lapse in recent years) The descriptions and links to the videos are all ready to copy and paste each week - feel free to use!

wykecollege-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/person...

I agree. If first definition is unchanged then you need 'v's instead of 'u's in the derivatives.

Small microwave surely?

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Details of both:
amsp.org.uk/explore-the-...

It’s so close now! Still just time to bag a ticket for TMiP 2025, where you can meet and network with other maths communicators, upgrade your skills and learn some new tricks: talkingmathsinpublic.uk

I've been TRYIN'

Windowskey+arrowkey moves a window to snap to a useful location (like half a screen, or on to the next monitor, or maximises (up) or minimises (down). Useful to quickly set up multiple windows (e.g. when marking to see spreadsheet and mark scheme etc)

SparksMaths Ben Sparks - maths, music, education, and occasionally other stuff. Ben is a mathematician, musician, teacher, and speaker. You can also see some of his work on the Numberphile YouTube channel. You c...

My channel in general has videos on how to build stuff in Geogebra.
youtube.com/@sparksmaths

Interactive classroom resources and ideas - YouTube A set of interactive files, with video demos and explanatory documents, that may be useful for mathematics classroom teachers.

This one contains some slightly longer demos of classroom ideas with GeoGebra. (Less how to build them and more how to use rhem)
youtube.com/playlist?lis...

GeoGebra School Maths demo Shorts - YouTube Useful dynamic mathematical demonstrations, relevant for high school maths, built super quick in GeoGebra

This playlist contains some 1 minute demos of building useful GeoGebra files from scratch for classroom topics.
youtube.com/playlist?lis...

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I was browsing this again the other day. Lots of lovely stuff. Thanks!

Is it still the case that some of the interactives are trying to run in Flash (and are therefore quite difficult to run in most browsers)?

Our #TMiP25 conference attendees will also learn about how skills from stand-up comedy can improve our maths comm, with experienced comedy producer Chris Head. Tickets at talkingmathsinpublic.uk

Text from Wikipedia summarising Enrico Fermi's paper drop test