T3M2

• 5th February 2010: Asking teachers how to develop maths outreach and recruiting co-conspirators to create mathematical wonders. The webpage is still accessible here.

Talks for Schools 2008/09

• 25th February 2009:  Theme and variations: when doing the same thing again and again gives a different answer every time! (John Hunton)
  This talk is particularly aimed at year 11.
• 17th June 2009:  Patterns in the world (Nicole Snashall)
  This talk is particularly aimed at year 10.

Talks for Schools 2007/08

• 7^th November 2007:  Mathematical puzzles and games (Jeremy Levesley)

Many mathematicians become interested in mathematics through games and puzzles. In this talk I will introduce some games and puzzles which require particular forms of mathematical thinking to solve. It will be in workshop format with lots of interraction. Students will need to bring a pen and some paper.

• 12^th December 2007:  Dirichlet's Principle: what have hairs to do with pigeonholes? (Frank Neumann)

We will show that obvious statements like "if you have fewer pigeon holes than pigeons and you put every pigeon in a pigeon hole, then there must result at least one pigeon hole with more than one pigeon" can be fomalized into a powerful counting argument, Dirichlet's principle, with lots of surprising applications in mathematics and daily life.

• 23^rd January 2008:  How big is infinity? (Nicole Snashall)

The question of infinity has always intrigued mathematicians. What do we mean by infinity? Are some infinities bigger than others? We will use Hilbert's Hotel to explore this subject, and investigate new aspects of the numbers we think we are all familiar with!

• 27^th February 2008:  Mathematics and how to make your first million (Manolis Georgoulis)

Mathematicians that have solved difficult and long-standing problems have been honoured not only with immense respect from their colleagues, but also with worldwide fame. I will talk about the story of one mathematician who solved one of the most famous maths problems, which, had he solved it some years later, could possibly have won him a $1,000,000 prize. I will finish with 7 other unsolved problems that could make a millionnaire of the people who solve one of them.

• 7^th May 2008:  Babylonian mathematics (Mike Dampier)

Studying some 4000 year old documents from Babylonia reveals how ancient the study of mathematics is, and makes us ask how we could achieve so much without modern tools.