Eye-Opening & Entertaining Maths Lectures At The Bath Forum

On Monday 12^th March, 52 mathematicians from the 5^th and 6^th Forms attended the prestigious Maths Inspiration Lectures at the Bath Forum.

These engaging lectures helped to demonstrate where many aspects of school mathematics are being used today in some very interesting and exciting areas of life. A total of 900 students from the South West attended these lectures hosted by Helen Pilcher, an accomplished writer, comedian and researcher for the science magazine Nature.

Our opening lecture was given by Rob Eastaway who has been director of the Maths Inspiration programme since it began in 2004, along with appearing on many radio stations to talk about everyday maths and the books he has written. In his talk he explored the ideas of game theory where he discussed the mathematics of football penalty shootouts, and shootouts in classic western duels. He also introduced us to a game he invented called ‘Nice or Nasty’, where he evaluated the probability of success when two people had the choice to either help each other and half a prize, or to risk it all to ‘steal’ it off their opponent. It was both thought provoking and intriguing to see how other people react when placed in similar situations, along with the maths involved.

Next was John Roberts, a Director at engineering firm ‘Jacobs’ where he has been a key engineer for the construction and design of the London Eye, Blackpool’s ‘Big One’, and the new Brighton i360. For his talk, he discussed the mathematics of building large constructions such as rollercoasters, developing upon the relationship between Kinetic and Potential Energy, along with momentum and the safety features involved. It was difficult not to appreciate just how qualified he is in his field.

Finally, there was a speech by Hannah Fry, a lecturer in the Mathematics of Cities at UCL. She has a PhD in the mathematics of fluid flows, but now spends her time looking into the patterns of human behaviour. In her talk she discussed the mathematics behind serial killing, along with real world examples reflecting the probabilities of random numbers being picked. It was certainly fascinating as she made it very relevant to the audience, along with there being plenty of entertaining audience participation.

All in all, it was an eye-opening afternoon reflecting just how what we learn in the classroom can be applied to the real world.

Samuel Houldsworth - L6^th Form Mathematician