National Inspirational Maths Show

This year marks the 20^th year of the National Inspirational Maths show for teenagers.  37 of our students were lucky enough to attend the sold out show at the Royal Northern College of Music.  

There were four speakers who explored topics varying from designing the London Olympic stadium to exploring the Maths behind musical notes:  would you say there were 8 or 12 notes in an Octave?

Ayliean Macdonald introduced the audience to the Toothpick Fractal:  a simple pattern repeated many times to generate amazing patterns which become profoundly complex mathematically.

Aoife Hunt explained how her work with maths and psychology, helps to model the evacuation of large buildings and the flow of people through sports and music venues across the country.

To round off the event, there was a fascinating talk by the world renowned, Ben Sparks (nothing to do with SparxMaths!).  He delved into the maths behind music and – with the aid of his guitar – demonstrated how Maths can be beautiful;  a truly inspirational speaker and frequent contributor to the YouTube channel Numberphile.

Maths Department