Wrong, But Useful

In the 71st episode of Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by @nookiedv, who is Anouk de Vos in real life. We discuss: Number of the podcast: 1729, a fairly uninteresting number. Sums of cubes updates: 33 42 3 is also interesting as there are two solutions but it’s unknown if there are more (posed in 1953) - since recording, 3 has been found again! The Collatz conjecture: maybe it isn’t true? Process approaches 1 for nearly all starting points (Terry Tao) Numberblocks, Sumaze primary, and DragonBox GeoGebra Number of Core Maths students increased last year Pitching core maths? Reuben’s homework […]

In this episode, we're joined by special guest co-host @sophiebays, who is Dr Sophie Carr in real life, and the world's most interesting mathematician1. We discuss: The Big Internet Math-Off. My favourite pitch wasn’t really in the contest! I also liked Alex’s wobbly table and Anna’s FURNACE. Number of the podcast: 24. The Winton Centre Quick Quiz for Legal Professionals from @dspiegel. Maths Scholarships The £50 note. The Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics. The Isaac Newton Institute’s summer puzzles Eliasson exhibition at Tate Modern What has 4 letters, sometimes 9 letters, but never has 5 letters. A claim by Claire’s […]

In this episode, we're joined by @christianp, who is Christian Lawson-Perfect in real life, our first returning special guest co-host1. We discuss: The Big Internet Math Off and associated stickerbook 99 variations on a proof by Philip Ording The Art of Statistics - Learning from Data by David Spiegelhalter Maths on the back of an envelope - Rob Eastaway 1 in 8 men believe they “could” win a point against Serena Williams. Green number lines via Adam Atkinson: Zachtronics games are now free for school use. Also, "Baba is You" is fun. Mathematical objects podcast Via @peterrowlett: The Talking maths […]

In this month’s thrilling installment of Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by @c_j_smith, who is Calvin Smith in real life. We discuss… Number of the Podcast: 5 Are Fish and Chip shop owners good at maths? Two maths puns and a maths joke Are there ‘popular’ books that ‘lead you in’ to mechanics? An application of the sum-of-squares problem Via @PaulsPrattle (Paul O’Malley): “If you were the ruler of the universe tomorrow what would be the objective in secondary mathematics learning for all kids everywhere?” Via @aap03102, (Chris Smith)’s newsletter: some love for Simon Plouffe Via @christianp: The Big Mathoff […]

In this month's Wrong, But Useful, we're joined by @sheena2907, who is Sheena in real life. We discuss: Sheena's Number of the Podcast: 3,212 Board Games - Number Fluxx, Prime Climb Magic: The Gathering is undecidable! Oxbridge Time surprises The oddness of the Fibonacci sequence The heights of women Big MathsJam Down Under Population modelling in the Marvel universe The IMU committee for women in mathematics newsletter Elwyn Berlekamp has died How do you see means? The Superpermutation Search Via Jeremy Cote: "I've actually seen [J] in a textbook I've used for my real analysis course, but in that case, […]

In this month’s episode of Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by @cshearer41, who is Catriona Shearer in real life. We discuss: LaTeX (time to fight again) Mathematical sign language More interesting ‘bad graphs’ than the obvious howlers you usually see on the internet. Via @peterrowlett: Some people think statistics has too much significance, and it’s hard to disagree. Chalkdust article by @loopspace about Catriona's other, almost-mathematical, hobby, bellringing! @mathsobjects, a new podcast from @stecks and @peterrowlett. Any other cases of mathematical discoveries that looked different at the time? Does your road have a house 13? 136 votes: yes 56%, no, […]

In this month’s Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by @televisionduck, who is TD Dang in real life. We discuss: Chalkdust Issue 091 Fun spring cover with Harris spiral, Horoscope is back!, New academic webpage checklist (c.f. Colin’s old webpage, @standupmaths interview, top ten regulars, etc. Write for them! Talkdust, second best podcast: it’s about maths, puzzles, making the magazine, interviews. Number of the podcast: 42. Sums of cubes and open questions Pi day Apologies about audio last time. Dave’s fault. Superpermutations and Humble Pi Balancing pi on a beam One weird trick to deal with percentages The Queen Elizabeth Prize […]

In this month’s episode of Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by @DrSmokyFurby and his handler, Belgin Seymenoglu. Apologies for the poor audio quality on this call. Dave's fault, obviously1 . We discuss: The Talkdust podcast (via Adam Atkinson): Life insurance Superpermutations: new record for n = 7 in the comments on a YouTube post @pecnut and @mscroggs have a LaTeX package that puts hats on things Desmos adding support for distributions and all sorts @mdawesmdawes’s QUIBANS website Dave has been playing the game The Mind (Via @peterrowlett), 318,000 combinations of pringles Dave gave a talk in Exeter and will hopefully […]

In this month’s installment of Wrong, But Useful, Dave and I are joined by @honeypisquared, who is Lucy Rycroft-Smith in real life. We discuss: Mathematical board games, including The Mind Camel Cup Qwinto Number of the podcast: Lucy doesn’t like numbers so we don’t have one. Does your collection of maths people exclude anyone? Lucy went to Big MathsJam this year. Bowled over by the time taken to make sure people felt included. Clearly an intentional, thoughtful approach. Is stats actually maths1 ? Reference to Sara Hottinger - Inventing The Mathematician Christmas books: Colin - Factfulness by Hans Rosling Lucy […]

In this month’s episode of Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by @ch_nira, who is Dr Nira Chamberlain in real life - and the World’s Most Interesting Mathematician. Nira is a professional mathematical modeller, president-designate of the IMA, and a visiting fellow at Loughborough university. We discuss Nira’s entry in the Aperiodical Maths-Off. I mention a simulation of the Schelling model. Number of the podcast: 2, the percentage of the top rate of National Insurance. The Big MathsJam Special and Big MathsJam itself. Dave has a circle question that stumped his students. Nira turned the tables on some future teachers by […]