Feature
16 April 2024 / 17 April 2024 by C Cooper
Why is it that if there are 23 people in a room, it is more likely than not that two of share share a birthday?
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News
26 March 2024 / 26 March 2024 by C Cooper
The Justice Secretary was again seen wearing our Maths Society badge, this time at the Despatch Box in the House of Commons. The Rt Hon Alex Chalk KC MP, who as the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain is responsible for the efficient functioning and independence of the courts, was answering questions on Justice.
20 March 2024 / 26 March 2024 by C Cooper
Following his enthusiastic participation in a Maths Society event, The Rt Hon Alex Chalk KC MP was photographed in Cabinet wearing one of our badges. The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice was sat between the Home Secretary and the Business Secretary at the weekly meeting chaired by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was also seen leaving the meeting afterwards wearing the distinctive Maths Society badge.
Competitions
1 February 2024 / 7 April 2024 by C Cooper
Our Desmos Art Competition was even more successful than we expected, so we needed to extend the deadline until 30 November! Find out who won here.
12 November 2023 / 12 May 2024 by C Cooper
The International Mathematical Olympiad is a world championship maths competition for pre-university students and the oldest of the International Science Olympiads, and the most prestigious maths competition in the world.
25 September 2023 / 1 April 2024 by C Cooper
This is the 2023/24 UKMT Challenges Calendar! Our UKMT Guide is coming out very soon, where you can find out even more about these challenges. If you are participating in the Mathematical Olympiad for Girls, good luck for Tuesday 27! You can learn more about this interesting challenge when our guide comes out!
4 September 2023 / 1 April 2024 by C Cooper
Creative bathroom tiling isn’t just a problem for DIY home renovators! It is also one of the hardest and most interesting problems in mathematics. Imagine a bathroom floor made up of black and white tiles. They are the same shape and fit together perfectly, so no overlaps or gaps. You are probably imagining rectangles or hexagons, something you might even have yourself, a ‘periodic’ pattern that will repeat forever. So is it possible to find an ‘aperiodic’ shape that will not repeat? Even if your bathroom went on forever?
The Maths Society has launched its own website! We hope you take the opportunity to explore further, and take a little joy and knowledge from it.
2 September 2023 / 1 April 2024 by C Cooper
These are the top 10 teams currently competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad, ranked by medals.
16 August 2023 / 1 April 2024 by C Cooper
We have launched a Gallery project — to make a museum of maths, where you can walk around a virtual room discovering some of the stories behind the beautiful subject.
Competitions Events
The Maths Society is proud to announce that this November we will host a Team Maths Shootout! Participation will be local, and you will have received follow-up communication if you are eligible, but we will publish our Heats and Finals papers and solutions, so that everyone can get a chance to solve these interesting puzzles, for the first time written by our community.
Now you are able to show your support for the Maths Society by wearing one of our beautiful badges!
What do I know? Have I seen something like this before?
16 August 2023 / 7 April 2024 by C Cooper
Another Maths Society Competition. Can you submit the most ‘impressive’ piece of artwork using online graphing calculator Desmos? Open to all, accepting entries until 31 September.
15 August 2023 / 1 April 2024 by C Cooper
The names of four new Maths Society projects, kindly donated to us by A Sainsbury. Maths Society Quotes, Unsolved, Curiosities and Mistakes can be found on our ‘Other’ Resources page.
14 August 2023 / 1 April 2024 by C Cooper
The Maths Society is launching another two projects — Maths Society Biographies and Calendar! Both will be developed by our community, and represent another exciting step for the Maths Society.
Written by our Projects Secretary V Piridi, a core contributor to the upcoming Guide.
The Monty Hall Problem is one of the most interesting logic puzzles around. It is named after Monty Hall, who hosted the American Gameshow Let’s Make a Deal, where there was a particular challenge that if players picked the right door from 3, they could win a car. (The other doors contain goats)
Interview
One of our most spirited members, S Hussain, caught up with us to discuss his experience of taking Maths and Further Maths GCSEs.
Opinion
This is our enthusiastic member, K Gan, writing about his experience of taking the UKMT Junior Mathematical Olympiad.
The Maths Society is very excited to launch its first two projects — the Maths Society Guides and Maths Society Notebook projects. We plan to release the first examples of these around in early September.
We often see maths as a more cold, emotionless subject due to it being purely logical. But can maths affect how we feel? According to a new brain-scanning study published by Duke researchers, mental maths exercises can lead to better emotional health, since they trigger a specific part of the brain connected with emotional health.
So, you may recall our ‘I love maths’ Competition. Thanks in particular if you were one of the many people who entered our competition! Discover who won economist and statistician Tim Harford’s generously signed copy of his latest book, The Truth Detective, a signed Maths Society Poster, and an Oxford Institute of Mathematics badge.
At our first meeting, we were amazed when Australian-born author, comedian and mathematician Matt Parker sent us a wonderful introductory video, and also our oldest puzzle.