Happy 3nd of December!
Throughout the month, to accompany the release of our book on the Mathematics of Christmas, Hannah Fry & I are tweeting out Christmathsy bits and pieces, one a day, advent calendar style. Assuming we don’t run out of ideas, that is…
Today, a joke:
DON’T FORGET, you still have until tomorrow night (Sunday) to enter our competition…
Happy 2nd of December!
Throughout the month, to accompany the release of our book on the Mathematics of Christmas, Hannah Fry & I are tweeting out Christmathsy bits and pieces, one a day, advent calendar style. Assuming we don’t run out of ideas, that is…
Today’s advent offering is a quick puzzle. Answers via the comments or on Twitter. All correct answers will be rewarded with deep respect and warm Christmas wishes.
Also, there’s still a couple of days to enter yesterday’s competition.
Enjoy!
Happy First of December!
Throughout the month, Hannah Fry & I will be tweeting out Christmathsy bits and pieces, one a day, advent calendar style… Assuming we don’t run out of ideas, which is certainly possible (What do you mean we should have thought this through beforehand?).
First up, a competition!
In case you missed it. ???❄️☃️ pic.twitter.com/lf6MuFP3p8
— Hannah Fry (@FryRsquared) December 1, 2016
In our new book, The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus, Dr Hannah Fry and I discuss a mathematically superior way to organise your office Secret Santa. However, some people think they have found a flaw in our system…
Never fear though, we have a solution up our sleeves. I just hope you like cutting and sticking…
Here’s The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus, a book on the mathematics of Christmas, which I wrote with the brilliant Dr Hannah Fry.
In France, it is common to refer to “kilometres per hour” as “kilomètre-heures”. This fills me with a deep sense of mathematical unease.
So I started thinking about what a “kilometre hour” actually is. And also about turtles.
Back in 2012, I had a go at doing some stand-up comedy on the maths of US presidential elections for Bright Club (a public engagement scheme for academics). Given that the US is currently careering headlong into another election, it seems a good time to post the video, along with a brief discussion of the maths (or possibly an apology for the maths):
After 19 days and 55 rule guesses, the sequence challenge was SOLVED on Saturday morning.
The not-so-fabulous mystery prize will be revealed tomorrow. The image is a clue to its identity.
UPDATE: The mystery prize is now revealed at the bottom of the solution page.
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Continue reading
OK, so today I’m unveiling a new maths puzzle that, all being well, will run every day until someone discovers the solution. There is even a (very modest) ‘mystery prize’, which I will send to the winner (provided that they do not live somewhere so remote that the postage charges would be ridiculous).
The puzzle is a simple sequence, to which one term will be added each day. Your challenge is simply to determine the mathematical rule behind the sequence.
Click here to see the sequence
I am not really sure how difficult this will be (quite challenging, I think), so we could be here for a long, long time… or equally, it could all be over in a couple of days. Or maybe there will be no guesses at all and we will have to quietly forget all about it. Whichever, it’s all good.
