SPS Mathematics Blog

 On Tuesday, 10th June, the brilliant mathematician, Zoe Griffiths, came to St. Paul’s to give some 5th form students a fun and interactive presentation about ‘Mathematics of the Unexpected’. Having entered the John Colet Hall, we sat down at desks in pairs and were immediately greeted by a jovial and comical Zoe. Not only has she appeared on the YouTube Channel Numberphile, but she has also been on BBC Radio 4, performing mathematical comedy sets. Needless to say, she gave off a lot of positive energy, which made us all very excited about the two hours ahead of us. We began by investigating the secrets of some magic tricks, such as the seemingly mind-boggling fact that any 3-digit number repeated after itself (e.g. 738738), when divided by 7, will always produce a whole number. Surely, we would expect only a seventh of the numbers to be a multiple of 7? In fact, this new number divides by 13, 11 and 7. Now, 13 x 11 x 7 =1001 and 1001 multiplied by any 3-digit number produces a n...

Ben Sparks is a Youtuber with over 10,000 subscribers and often has appeared on the popular channel Numberphile. He hosted a session for a group of students from SPS and SPGS united by a love of mathematics. Split into two halves, the initial period was a talk covering a broad range of mathematics - including history and philosophy. Mathematical peaks sighted included irrational numbers, the discovery (invention?) of zero, complex numbers, and the Mandelbrot set. Students were delighted to be met by a QI-esque klaxon and flashing word whenever their answers had been anticipated. After a short break, and some snacks, the students spent some time solving a range of problems related to irrational numbers and folding A4 paper. (Although the highlight here was possibly Ben's metric system supremacist rant). Finally, Ben Sparks finished off with a sprinkle of magic. Michael (6th) played a starring role as assistant and volunteer to Ben's mind-reading trick and later as straight man t...

 The mathematics society had the pleasure of welcoming Professor Paul Cook, who gave a fascinating talk at mathematics society entitled as Schrödingers famous quote to Einstein: ‘I don’t like it, and I’m sorry I ever had anything to do with it’. His lecture combined clear theoretical explanations with engaging demonstrations, including a polariser experiment that demonstrated wave superposition principles. He also provided a detailed examination of the infamous double-slit experiment, using it to explore core quantum concepts such as whether light behaves as a particle or a wave, or both.