Maths at: Season 2 Bloopers

We can't be perfect all the time.

From everyone at maths at have a good year and we hope to be back at some point in the future.

Maths at: Valentine's day

Although we've finished our first series, we couldn't miss St Valentine's day.

What could be more romantic than scientifically analysing love and romance using mathematics?

Amongst other things we discuss:

• Why should you dump the first 37% of your partners?
• How many snogs away from Prince Charles are you?
• Are you a validator or an avoider?

Join your hosts as they show you their romantic side and be surprised that any of them actually have partners!

 

 
Further reading links:

• Ben's bunkum length of love formula;
• Drawing hearts graphically;
• Jim Murray's Maths of Marriage book or online lecture;
• Mobius strip earrings, for you significant other.

Subscribe via iTunes.
 
Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley, @benmparker.

Maths at the Movies: The Oxford Murders

This week we discuss we discuss The Oxford Murders:

• Thomas laughs at the word bra;
• Liz wants a prime number named after her;
• Ben just wants his coffee bringing to him;
• And we all think about mathematically defining pasta shapes.

Yup, it's a case of a bad movie, with very little to talk about. At least it made for a fun recording!

If you're interested in watch The Oxford Murders, then you're weird, but you can buy the DVD from Amazon below.

Further reading links:

• Self descriptive numbers
• Online integer sequences database
• Fermat's last theorem
• Magic square and noughts and crosses

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

Watch along with MATM: The Oxford Murders

Don't do it.

The Oxford Murders is terrible.

(Thomas is very sorry for choosing it).

However, should you want to waste 104 minutes of your life you can buy the DVD from Amazon by following the link below.

 

Such a waste of talented people!
Such a waste of mathematical logic!

We didn't read it... but the book might be better?

Maths at the Movies: Flatland

This week we take a walk in the lower dimensions as we talk about Flatland: The Movie.

• How much is your life worth?
• Could 2D animals exist?
• Did George Orwell rip this story off by adding a third dimension?

All of these questions and more are interrupted in our Flatland: The Movie podcast.

Join us in our search for the third dimension and beyond!

If you're interested in watching Flatland: The Movie  you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• galleries of beautiful fractal images;
• learn more about maths in the courtroom;
• the the company behind the film have made a number of educational resources and other films;
• why not read the book the film is based on?
• This links takes you to one of Martin Gardener's review of Planiverse, Alexander Dewdney's fully thought out and scientifically accurate version of Flatland.

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

Watch along with MATM: Flatland

It's been a long time coming, but we're finally back on track. Next Friday will be our 8th episode where we discuss and watch Flatland: The Movie.

Once again we have a star-studded cast of voice actors including Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell and Michael York.

You can buy a DVD copy from the company behind the film, or Amazon does stock imported US versions. However, they are quite expensive and will take a little while to arrive.

For those of you who do not want to seek an illegal online streaming copy (which we do not condone here at Maths At) there is always the possibility of reading the book by Edwin A. Abbott, which sticks pretty close to the movie, except for one or two plot points. The book also goes into much more detail about the Flatland universe.

Be there or be square.

Maths at: Christmas

It's the most wonderful time... of the year.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of our listeners. 

Join us as we discuss (amongst other things):

• our favourite Christmas films (not really mathematical);
• the differences between a mathematicians office Christmas party and an actual Christmas party (slightly mathematical);
• the number of presents your true is giving and how many legs they'll have (quite mathematical).

So fill your boots with Turkey and in your after dinner stupor enjoy our CHRISTMATHS! We're better than the Queen's speech.

GUEST INTRO AND OUTRO: Ma Woolley.

As festive as Ben can get!

Further reading links:

• It's a Wonderful Life (Ben's favourite Christmas movie), Muppet's Christmas Carol (Liz' favourite Christmas movie) and Batman Returns (Thomas' favourite Christmas movie);
• Sheffield University's Maths Society's formulas for a perfect Christmas tree;
• A nice discussion on the Travelling Santa Problem.

Subscribe via iTunes.

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

Maths at the Movies: pi

This week we watched pi.

Sadly there were no tigers, boats or Dev Patel in this movie.

Nope, this film was an avant garde, mood piece, seething with questioning the meaning of truth and its place in the lives of humans and the universe.

In other words pretentious.

However, none Darren Aronofsky's nonsense matters. What you should be listening for is Ben's rendition of "Euclid's people" a song of his own creation sung to the tune of "Common people" by pulp.

You've got to hear it to believe it.

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

 

Further reading links:

• play go online;
• find your birthday in pi;
• more pi facts than you can shake a stick at;
• weird ways of calculating pi;
• known digits of pi over time.

Subscribe via iTunes.

Maths at the Movies: The Imitation Game plus SPECIAL GUEST

In this episode we watch the movie The Imitation Game. 

Alongside your regular team of Thomas, Ben and Liz there was only one mathematician with the expertise who could take us through this movie with grace, wit and wisdom. And that mathematician wasn't available so we got 

Dr James Grimes 

instead.

Join us for episode five of Maths at: The Movies as we separate fact from fiction about the life of Alan Turing.

If you're interested in watching The Imitation Game you can follow the Amazon link below.

 

Further reading links:

• more than you would ever want to know about Alan Turing;
• Turing's biography by Andrew Hodges;
• more than you would ever want to know about James Grime;
• finding the truth behind the movies;
• comparing actors and their real-life counter parts.
• play with an online enigma machine;
• play with an online Turing machine.

Subscribe via iTunes.

Watch along with MATM: The Imitation Game and SPECIAL GUEST!

This Friday, we will be watching Banister Crumblebench starring in The Imitation Game. The film follows the life of monumental mathematician Alan Turing and his work on cracking the Enigma code during World War II.

The mathematical genius Alan Turing and marvellous actor Bumblesnuff Crimpysnitch.

Joining your regular team of Liz, Ben and Thomas will be a SPECIAL GUEST mathematician.

Who could it be?

• Is it Bodysnatch Cummerbund?
• Is it Buffalo Custardbath?
• Is it Bundleup Catchyoudeath?

Will Thomas ever get tired of mispronouncing Benedict Cumberbatch's name?

None of these answers and more will be provided on Friday.

Why not watch along with us? You can buy a digital version of the film through Amazon by clicking on the image below.

 

Loop de loop patterns

During The Man Who Knew Infinity, Thomas produced a picture for Liz based on a random set of numbers taken from Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land.

The picture was a Loop de Loop pattern.

The idea is that you consider a moving pointer, known as a "turtle". The turtle is given instructions to move around and the picture is made up of the turtle's track history. The set of rules that the turtle follows is:

• the turtle moves along in a straight line a given distance. Here, the random numbers where used as the distances;
• after moving each distance the turtle is turned 90 degrees to the right;
• iterate the pattern until you get back to the beginning, or until you want to stop.

There are many websites that will allow you to produce such a picture using a programming language known as Logo.

For a simple example consider the list of numbers {50, 100, 150}. A single iteration of the Loop de Loop algorithm is given by

fd 50 rt 90 fd 100 rt 90 fd 150,

where "fd" means "go forward" the given amount and "rt" means "turn right" the given number of degrees. Following this set of instruction would produce a "J" type pattern, as shown below. Iterating the pattern can be done simply through 

repeat 4[fd 50 rt 90 fd 100 rt 90 fd 150 rt 90].

This code will repeat the instructions 4 times and produce a "pin wheel" type pattern, shown below.

Iterations of the code using the set of numbers {50, 100, 150}. Top left - one iteration, top right - two iterations, bottom left - three iterations, bottom right - four iterations.

The numbers Thomas used (although apparently not the numbers that Liz gave) were

{7, 9, 4, 8, 5, 7, 4, 3, 9, 2, 5, 7, 3, 8, 4, 9, 7, 5, 2, 6, 3}.

Four iterations take you back to the beginning point; the four iterations are illustrated below. Once, you have made your pattern, you can colour it in and make it funky.

The four iterations of the Loop de Loop pattern, using the Donald Duck random number list.

Thomas generated his pictures using MatLab. The code is given below.

Why not produce your own Loop de Loop pattern and tweet it to us @PodcastMathsAt?

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

% Clear all information

clear

close all

clc

N=[7 9 4 8 5 7 4 3 9 2 5 7 3 8 4 9 7 5 2 6 3]; %The list of numbers.

figure('position',[0 0 1 1]) %Set the figure space to fill the screen.

% Iteration 1
M=N;
theta=0;
x(1)=0;

for i=1:length(M)

    x(i+1)=x(i)+M(i)*exp(theta*1i);
    theta=theta+pi/2;

end
subplot(2,2,1)
plot(real(x),imag(x))
axis equal
axis off

% Iteration 2

M=[N N]
theta=0;
x(1)=0;
for i=1:length(M)

    x(i+1)=x(i)+M(i)*exp(theta*1i);
    theta=theta+pi/2;

end
subplot(2,2,2)
plot(real(x),imag(x))
axis equal
axis off

% Iteration 3
M=[N N N];
theta=0;
x(1)=0;

for i=1:length(M)

    x(i+1)=x(i)+M(i)*exp(theta*1i);
    theta=theta+pi/2;

end
subplot(2,2,3)
plot(real(x),imag(x))
axis equal
axis off

% Iteration 4
M=[N N N N];
theta=0;
x(1)=0;

for i=1:length(M)
  
    x(i+1)=x(i)+M(i)*exp(theta*1i);
    theta=theta+pi/2;

end
subplot(2,2,4)
plot(real(x),imag(x))
axis equal
axis off

Maths at the Movies: The Man Who Knew Infinity

In this episode we watch the movie The Man Who Knew Infinity.

And in this episode we learn that we shouldn't be mean to Dev Patel.

• You can admire Jeremy Iron's subtle performance of introversion;
• You can wonder if maths is like Jazz;
• You can even question whether Ramanujan really was as brilliant as he was claimed to be.

You can do all of this... as long as you're not mean to Dev Patel.

Join us for episode four of Maths at: The Movies as we delve deep into the biopic of Srinivasa Ramanujan.

If you're interested in watching The Man Who Knew Infinity you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• more than you would ever want to know about Ramanujan;
• Hardy's famous apology;
• puzzles based on Ramanujan's work;
• buy the book behind the film;
• Chinese multiplication;
• Generating -1/12 from adding the integers.

Subscribe via iTunes.

Maths at the Movies: Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land

In this episode we watch the movie Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land.

Well, this was just weird.

Although the animation is beautiful, can you trust the company that told you that lemmings were suicidal to teach you mathematics?

Also we cover Donald Duck's terrible gun control and the billiards game that goes on forever!

Plus bees that make jam.

If you're interested in watching Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land, you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• coloured honey from French bees;
• the billiards diamond system;
• Le Corbusier's mathematical architecture;
• there was a book too?

Subscribe via iTunes.

Maths at the Movies: Proof

In this episode we watch the movie Proof.

Did Gwyneth Paltrow really prove the theorem? What theorem was she trying to prove? How many vaginas does a Time Lord have?

All these questions and more are discussed in this weeks Maths at the Movies.

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

Further reading links:

• more about the amazing life of Sophie Germain;
• who was Erdos?;
• calculate your Erdos number;
• what are prime numbers good for?;
• the ideas behind the Four Colour Theorem;
• buy the book of the play.

Subscribe via iTunes.

MATM Appendix: Who the hell are we?

You've listened to us talk, but what are our credentials? What do we know? What are our backgrounds? When should you take our "facts" at face value and when should you call bullshit?

Join us in this appendix to better understand your hosts.

Further reading links:

• you can see this earlier blog post about us;
• Thomas E. Woolley's home page;
• Ben M. Parkers' profile;
• more about Liz. 

 Subscribe via ITunes.

Maths at the Movies: 21

In our first ever episode we watch the movie 21.

This film has it all: racism, sexism, disableism... and a smattering of mathematics.

Join us as we peel back the layers of gambling and card counting to reveal why you should never keep your money in your ceiling and why you'll never be as good a mathematician as Kevin Spacey.

If you're interested in watching 21 you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• more than you could ever want to know about the Fibonacci sequence;
• a basic strategy guide to blackjack;
• learn how to count cards from wikiHow or Scam School;
• a technical guide to the Newton-Raphson technique.

 Subscribe via iTunes.