Maths
I
Maths
Life without a calculator
How did people deal with big numbers before the invention of the calculator?
A colourful problem
How many colours do you need to fill in a map? The answer is more complicated than you'd think...
Solved at Last
Could you imagine spending years working on a mathematical problem, then becoming famous worldwide once you solved it?
Divine inspiration
A self-taught genius from India and one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. He believed mathematical ideas were visions from God, giving him a unique style of maths that helped solve problems Western mathematicians couldn’t.
A mathematical legacy
Pythagoras was an ancient Greek philosopher who discovered the mathematical structure behind music during the 6th century BC. He was one of the first people to study the properties of numbers, and the relationships between them. As well as recognising the maths of music, he came up the famous theorem for the sides of a right-angled triangle: a² + b² = c².
Making monsters
Mathematicians used to worry about fractals, until they realised just how useful these ‘monster curves’ are.
What has just one side and gets in a twist?
It’s not a joke, but a strange mathematical object called a Möbius strip. Why not make one at home?
What use is maths?
You may wonder what connects the maths you do in school to the real world. Will you ever have to solve an equation or find an angle outside your classroom? Maths is very useful and is everywhere in everyday life.
Crochet yourself a universe
Sea slugs, coral, and crochet help explain strange geometrical theories.
What's in a maths-based degree?
What degree to take at university is an important decision, and it can be a difficult one. Even if you know that you would like to do something related to maths, you still have to decide exactly what kind of degree it should be.
What do maths and stats graduates do?
Some degrees are very vocational and train you in a particular skill or trade that you need to pursue a particular career.
What professional bodies are there?
The United Kingdom has three main professional organisations representing mathematicians and statisticians. The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the London Mathematical Society, and the Royal Statistical Society.