Maths at: The FUTURE!

Back to the future. There's no maths in it. We just wanted to watch a good film. I suppose we should talk about it too.

 

In today's programme:

• we travel through time at a rate of 1 second/second.
  
• is Harry Potter better than Back to the Future?
• how do the laws of physics change when we're moving?
• all our knowledge is guided by the wonderful Naomi Wray.

Further reading: 

• book your tickets to the Back to the Future The Musical;
  
• is time travel complicated? Take a look at this infographic and learn about 3 Theories of Time Travel;
• have a glimpse at Hannah's programme partying with Steven Hawking;
• watch Kip Thorne present on black holes at Cardiff University.
  

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Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker. Hannah has one of those new-fangled instagrams.

Maths at: Long-tailed tits & Lovelace

 TITS! Tits. TiTs... TIIIIIIITS,

(tits)

t...i...t...s

Yup, we we've found our level.

 

This week we're joined by the wonderful (soon to be doctor) Natasha Ellison (good luck, Natasha!), from the Unviersity of Sheffield and she takes us on a whirlwind tour of her thesis results of where you should look for tits in a forest and how the mathematics stems from understanding wolf pack dynamics.

Alongside our ecological leanings we also discuss Augusta Ada King, or Ada Lovelace to her friends. Tuesday 13th October marks Ada Lovelace day. As one of the first ever computer programmers to exist why not crack open your favourite programming language and have a go at saying:

HELLO WORLD!

Further reading: 

• Follow Natasha on twitter;
  
• Learn more about Ada Lovelace day;
• How to say Hello World in 28 different programming languages.
  

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Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker.

 

Maths at: Fantasy Football (Part 2)

The first episode got us all up to speed as to what on earth Fantasy Football was all about. The Maths at: team is now ready to plunder the depths of Josh's strategies and Thomas has been editing in haste. 

We can 100% guarantee that if you follow the strategy as specifed by Josh you will be in with a chance of winning and that's no Bull.

Once again your regulars, Ben and Thomas, are joined by the knowledgable Hannah Veale and the intriguing Josh Bull. Gather round as they seek answers to such questions as:

• is it luck, or is it skill?
  
• is it better to have consistent scorers, or one off star strikers?
  
• why is everyone regressing to the mean?

Of course, the simple answer is that you get reddit to do the hard work for you! See how in today's podcast.

Further reading:

• Josh Bull's Fantasy Football page, which contains all the history of his choices.
• Why not have a go at your own Fantasy team through The official Fantasy Premier League?
  
• For actual tips on Fantasy Football, Josh recommends Reddit.
• Alongside being brilliant at everything Hannah Veale is also a photographer. Why not check her out?
• Interested in the statistics that Ben showed? This paper quantifies the effect of having a crowd on your win ratio.
  

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Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker.

Maths at: Contact

Maths at... proudly* sponsored by Prof. Elizabeth Baldwin! 

*we have no idea of how proud she is.

Care to sponsor an episode? It'll cost you 77p!

Sorry about the quality of Thomas' microphone, he had trouble recording. Won't happen again (until the next).



This week we watched Contact and are joined, once again, by

Dr William Taylor 

His enthusiasm is so infectious! So whilst he tried to educate us, we try to divert his attention with such discussion points as:

• Spice girls! A very strong start?
• We didn't do the "you can't be Sirius Joke!" (Although I did, but no-one laughed so I cut it. But feel free to add it back in... you'll know when).
• Jane Fonda, or Jodie Foster?

Thomas is tired, Liz is Pregnant and Ben can't find his mass, can you find it?

 

If you're interested in watching Contact you can follow the Amazon link below. 

Further reading links:

• Can you tell what the Arecibo Message is?
• Hubble Image of Galaxy Cluster Converted Into Sound

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Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker.

Maths at the Movies: The Martian

Another sexy, sexy episode this week as we are joined by the NAKED MATHEMATICIAN

Dr Thomas Crawford

Get ready to feel dull by comparison!

Today's discussion points include:

• Everyone's links to Countdown;
• Thomas tells us about the Greeks;
• Can you tell the difference between Jeff Daniels and Jeff Bridges?

So put your feet up, get comfortable and get naked, as we talk about this week's movie The Martian.

If you're into watching The Martian, you can follow the link below.

Further reading links:

• There is actually a website that maintains a fact file on every episode of Countdown. Why not have a look at how Ben did?
• Recently the rover Opportunity made the news as it lasted 5,352 sols after being planned for only 90 sols, but what did it discover?

• Fancy having a go at surviving through The Martian's maths problems?

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Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker.

Maths at the Movies: CUBE

This week is a little different, and I've got to say perhaps one of the most interesting episodes we've ever done!

We are joined by the multi-talented

Dr Lyle Skains

who uses her research knowledge of evolutionary biology and digital literature to show us how to really write a good movie!

Highlights this week are:

• Liz geeking out with Lyle, will they go on holiday together?
• Ben misunderstanding publishing, will he ever get his cheese and wine?
• Thomas reliving his childhood years, when did he stop being so nihilistic

If you're interested in watching CUBE you can follow the Amazon link below. 

Further reading links:

• Wondering what digital fiction looks like? Well try What football will look like in the future? and prepare to have your horizons expanded.
• If you're interested in the future of literature then have a look at Lyle's recent book. It discusses such subjects as: indie publishers, hybrid authors, and fanfiction writers.
• Lyle's also written plenty of digital fiction. Again, this is reading, but not as we know it.
• If you're lazy and got be bothered to read then why not try Lyle's podcast Wonderbox publishing.
• If you've seen CUBE, when not try CUBE ZERO and CUBE 2: Hypercube. They are equally as bonkers!
• The geocities CUBE website that actually investigated the mathematics more than we did!

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Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker.