James Munro

Our much missed colleague Vicky Neale wanted to tell the world about maths. So who better for the second Vicky Neale Public Lecture than Simon Singh who has spent a career doing just that.

Wednesday 6 August, 5pm, Oxford. Online three weeks later. More info: www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/72339

🚨🍩 Torus alert!! 🍩🚨

No, I've got no idea whether this is true or not, sorry.

The University of Oxford is aware of the complaints. Have you approached Ofqual? ^James

The Curse of the Diaeresis

You might be interested in the way the New Yorker handles this www.newyorker.com/culture/cult...

I'm imagining a number like 9.499999999997, with so many 9s in the middle that the calculator gives up and rounds this to 9.5, which begins 9.5. I've interpreted the question as being about the difference between the true answer and what the calculator says, which is probably not intended.

I don't know any procedures for this, but my answer depends on the number of digits the calculator has (my lower bound is slightly below 9.5 to allow for some tiny amount of rounding, and similarly at the other end). Am I supposed to imagine a calculator that doesn't round?

The MEGA Grant is a bursary scheme for maths communicators who want to put together large-scale, hands-on interactive maths events and this year's closing date is 22/7. If you have a cool idea and just need some support and £££ to make it happen, visit: tmip.uk/mega-grant

Screenshot of collection pot UI, with a box for me to type my message, but over the top there is a message "Need a hand? Let AI suggest some ideas" blocking my view of the text I'm trying to type!

Hey can we get Collection Pot (the farewell card people) to join Bluesky so that I can tell them (1) their AI suggestion thing can't be dismissed and sits on top of the text I'm writing, and (2) I do not want AI to write the farewell message for me. Probably nobody wants that.

All that tech and all that prep and I still forgot to unmute myself at the start haha ^James

Two computer screens, and a mess of tech peripherals like a tablet and microphone and a mini stream deck. One screen says MAT Livestream 2025 in large letters.

In #MathsToday we've started the MAT Livestream again; free online support for people thinking of applying for Maths or CS at university (and especially Oxford). See www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive for more! ^James

Thanks Emily! ^James

I'm not a primary or secondary teacher, but I'm interested in this! Why do you think the question says "on average"? The intention seems to be for children to just ignore those two words? But that bit is interesting to me because in general E(1/X) isn't 1/E(X)! Of course, KS2 kids don't know that...

Love the choice to use (2,0) instead of (1,0) and similarly on the y-axis. What changes if it's not convex? (Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the same answer in terms of a and b)

Templeton is attempting the Table Cubes activity; there are nine dice, each with four numbers written on them, and they can be arranged to show 9 times table, or the 8 times table, and so on down to the 1 times table. Activity adapted from magicmathworks.org/oldsite/exhi...

A large red dragon mascot (wearing a T-shirt identifying him as the mascot for Templars Square shopping centre) attempts a maths activity with dice at the Oxford Maths Festival.

Maths for everyone at the Oxford Maths Festival, even dragons! #MathsToday

ta v cool

Exciting! Do you know how much of the £8.2m is going to support girls' mathematics education? In the video you say "part of this funding". Is it a large part?

Nice! Do you want feedback / bug reports on this web version?

Come and work with us! We've just advertised a new post in the Oxford Mathematics outreach team, on a project that I'm really excited about. We're looking for someone to work on Mathematics resources to educate, challenge, and inspire students in KS4 or equivalent. Info & apply at bit.ly/3Ykps7q

Update; the Further Reading notes are now live, including links to books by Simon Singh, Borges, and Georges Perec. Also including a description of my incredibly stupid one-symbol code. Finite strings are countable, y'know... www.maths.ox.ac.uk/outreach/oxf... #MathsToday

We got to talk to Ayliean about Morse Code for an hour! So much fun :)

Store of one delight : I like |z+1/z|=2, which I first saw on an Oxford Maths problem sheet courses.maths.ox.ac.uk/course/view....

Please don't! It's not good science, especially the "3 sigma" bit. See this thread bsky.app/profile/dist...

We’re pleased to announce that tickets are now on sale for our 2025 Talking Maths in Public conference #TMiP25! Join us for ~e days of networking, panels, keynotes and discussions about communicating maths in a variety of ways. Details and booking info at talkingmathsinpublic...

Yep, I agree with your analysis, and I'm just suggesting a wording change to give students a nudge to "keep looking" in search of that magical value of k.

Q6 part (c) is really good, I love showing people this sort of thing. I don't know how you've prepared them for what's going to happen, but perhaps the point is that it's a surprise! thread: 3/3

There's a slight inconsistency of wording between Qs - some say orbit of F(x), some say orbit of x_0, and Q6 just says "the" orbit, perhaps to suggest that it's independent of x_0 (is it?). Students can probably guess what you mean, but might think that checking x_0 = 0 for Q6 is sufficient. 2/3

Q5 is really good, but k is not uniquely defined (the statement is technically true for k=1, which isn't what you mean). Maybe you want a phrase like "the maximum possible value of k" to prompt students to look beyond the interval (-1,1)? thread: 1/3

Neat, I love dynamical systems! Do you want feedback on this worksheet?