I'm on my way to a school in Stretford in Manchester, roughly in between the two Old Trafford grounds, but I won't be talking football or cricket.
Instead I'll be doing my 50 minute interactive talk about Shakespeare and Elizabethan mathematics, for the entire Year 9 cohort (200 of them). Love it!
What if some maths was formally part of the History curriculum? History gives maths more context and its stories can captivate students. @teakayb.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy and I are at the @histassoc.bsky.social conference in May, aiming to talk to hundreds of history teachers. www.haconference.com
With a month to go until Easter, get your bids in to the Googly Fund for small grants for friendly cricket.
Could be for help with your:
-Ground🚜
-Kit🏏
-Teas🫖
-Advertising🤳
We’ll fund anything that helps get more people playing friendly forms of the game in the UK & Ireland
Here's the uncropped version
The book also included V=IR, v=u+at, a^2+b^2=c^2. I mean, they were practically handing us the answers 😉
Here's part of an A level formula sheet. It tells you how to solve a quadratic. Students have this with them in their exam, so they don't have to memorise it. Whatever next?!
Er...actually this is from the SMP Advanced tables book, 1975 (first edition 1966). Plus ca change.
It was really good to be the guest on the 'Your Brain On Climate' podcast with @powellds.bsky.social, a chance to talk in depth about the importance of numeracy when dealing with emotionally charged topics like climate change www.yourbrainonclimate.com/1817605/epis...
SHAKESPEARE BY NUMBERS - A free public talk
On 10th March at 5pm, @freeburian.bsky.social and I are doing a joint talk on how numbers influenced Shakespeare. The venue is the London Interdisciplinary School in Whitechapel. A limited number of seats available, message one of us if you'd like to come.
I’ve been guest on three very different podcasts recently:
Your Brain on Climate - numeracy to fight politicians
www.yourbrainonclimate.com/1817605/epis...
More or Less - Delap's maths trick
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
Shakespeare Unlimited - maths 500 years ago
www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...
Consensus seems to be that most companies had ceased production by 1976 and slide rules had disappeared from almost all classrooms (except as curiosity pieces) by 1980.
I just bought a new toy - it's a fully working giant slide rule that was used for classroom demonstrations in the 1960s. This is what people used for doing tricky calculations, before electronic calculators took over in the late 1970s.
Mornington Crescent?
😃
Here’s my maths colleague @sparksmaths.bsky.social performing it on the Widnes platform in 2019 (there were no other passengers to hear it).
It was Widnes station, surely. I’ve been to the station and seen the plaque!
Not quite, in fact it’s more the reverse of that…
@adamrutherford.bsky.social in case you missed it, we uncovered Delap's mathematical secret, and mentioned Ipswich too.
Liam Delap of Chelsea FC can work out cube roots in his head. Is he a maths genius, or does he have a trick up his sleeve?
I investigated with @timharford.ft.com on this week's More or Less. You can listen here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
Whether you like maths or Shakespeare or both (🙋🏻♂️) or neither, this interview with @robeastaway.bsky.social is a fascinating listen.
We often pigeonhole people as either a "maths " or an "arts“ person, but in Shakespeare’s time this divide didn’t exist.
I spoke with @Folger.edu about why looking at Shakespeare through the eyes of a mathematician can help students to appreciate both disciplines. www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...
In NSW Australia there are three leaving-school maths exams: Standard, Extension 1 and Extension 2, which roughly equate to our AS, A level and Further. Here's the 2024 Extension 1 paper.
I like the quickie questions at the start, which test a range of maths skills www.nsw.gov.au/sites/defaul...
How did I miss that open goal?!
Ok, people saying “myself” instead of “me” is getting irritating now.
I blame you, #Traitors
Have you ever heard of "Transient Global Amnesia"? No, I hadn't either, until the 24th July last year, when it happened to me. For a day I forgot everything.
Here's the story: robeastaway.com/blog/amnesia
Not been to the new MathsWorld in London yet?
Come along on the evening of Thursday 29th Jan. I'm doing a talk on the maths of Shakespeare's London and it's also a chance to play with all the puzzles and exhibits. mathsworld.com/events/Shake...
My early season cricket has improved a lot thanks to local nets being available from October to March.
So happy to be back in nets, the season is just three months away
Step into Shakespeare's London as never before, an evening talk on Thursday 29th January at the amazing new MathsWorld venue, not far from the Globe mathsworld.com/events
We were delighted to host “Shakespeare’s Hidden Numbers” at the library, a fascinating talk by Rob Eastaway, author of Much Ado About Numbers. The session had students laughing and seeing Maths/The Bard in a whole new light. Thank you @kes-mathematics.bsky.social for this opportunity!
