Tag Archives: Christmas

The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar
Day 12

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Happy 12th 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…

As you’ll have gathered, one of the fundamental principles of our book is the absolute and unquestionable truth of Santa’s existence. However, even if you know that the big fellow is real, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s easy to spot. For example, one of these three is Santa… but which one?

Answers via the comments or on Twitter. All correct answers will be rewarded with deep respect and warm Christmas wishes. Enjoy!

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The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar
Day 11

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Happy 11th of December!

Puzzle time:

Answers via the comments or on Twitter. All correct answers will be rewarded with deep respect and warm Christmas wishes. Enjoy!

We’ll reveal the answer to Friday’s tough Elfnigma tomorrow, so there’s still time to have a go at that one too.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WHOLE CALENDAR SO FAR

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The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar
Day 10

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Happy 10th of December!

Puzzle time!

Answers via the comments or on Twitter. All correct answers will be rewarded with deep respect and warm Christmas wishes. Enjoy!

There’s a couple of days before we reveal the answer to the tough Elfnigma from yesterday, so there’s still time to have a go at that one.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WHOLE CALENDAR SO FAR

The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar
Day 8

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Happy 8th of December!

There’s a tougher-than-usual puzzle tomorrow, so today we’re keeping it light, with a joke:

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The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar
Day 7

The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar
Day 6

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Happy 6th of December!

Another puzzle today:

And take note of this observation from Michael Baym:

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The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar
Day 5

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Happy 5th of December!

Something a bit different today. As part of the research for our book, we created a two-step Markov model to analyse the Queen’s Christmas Messages and generate tweets in the same style. We’ll be tweeting these out from now until she delivers her message (When you can test how accurate we were!).

FOLLOW THE ELIZABOT HERE!

Across her 64 messages (including a written message in 1969), our Liz has actually got through a remarkably wide range of topics (with admirably little repetition, given the unvarying nature of her brief!), so don’t be surprised if the Elizabot comes out with the occasional musing on magnets, bagpipes or football.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WHOLE CALENDAR SO FAR

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