Wrong, But Useful

Since @reflectivemaths wasn't at Big MathsJam and @samuelhansen was, the MathsJam Special is a bit different this year.

In this month’s episode of Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by @mscroggs, one of the editors of @chalkdustmag1. Colin has a bug and an article in Chalkdust Matt gives some insights into the editing process at the magazine Number of the podcast: 8 Black History Month: Matt refers to Episode 53, when @seanjamshidi and #NikiWithoutTwitter mentioned their work on last year’s edition. Chalkdust are running articles and events again this year Ada Lovelace Day: None of us did anything for this this year, shamefully. The Aperiodical is orgainising Noethember, an Inktober in November illustrating mathematical legend Emmy Noether’s life. Matt […]

In this month’s episode of Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by Special Guest Cohost @macaronique, who is Angela Brett in real life. Angela recites her poem They Might Not Be Giants We discuss joy in teaching and learning, and crosswords Number of the podcast: 44, the number of derangements of five element Early bird pricing for Big MathsJam closes soon Colin has been reading Hannah Fry’s Hello World. An NRICH questionnaire you should do Things people don’t know Caucher Birkar is an assumed name, and is the Kurdish for “Migrant Mathematician” @peterrowlett is looking out for recreational maths problems a […]

In Episode 59 of Wrong, But Useful, we’re joined by @el_timbre, who is Emma Bell in real life. We discuss: Emma’s Roots column in Chalkdust1 Number of the podcast: 64, because it’s pleasing, and Dave sings the 64 Zoo Lane theme, which is less so. Emma’s hexastix construction and the maths behind it. Dave has been playing Trivia Mix-up. So have we now. Apparently, 47 is the most random number. Dave wants to know what people should know. Emma runs the #mathsmatters hashtag, trying to enthuse and engage people in maths @nira_ch (Nira Chamberlain) won the Aperiodical Maths-Off. Dave claims […]

In this episode of Wrong, But Useful, we are joined by freelance mathematician @becky_k_warren, formerly of NRICH Becky likes sharing maths with people who "don't like maths" and the #beingmathematical twitter chat Number of the podcast: 157, which is the middle of a sexy prime triplet. Colin goes all Rees-Mogg for a moment. The Aperiodical Math-off is reaching its final stages. We were rooting for @ajk_44. Dave suggests a televised version. Colin dislikes the tournament format. @cmonmattthink has More Questions Than Answers @cuttheknotmath (Alexander Bogomolny in real life) has died. The University of Waterloo now has an elliptical pool table. […]

Owing to a spotty connection, the sound quality is a bit patchy on this one. Apologies. In this month's installment, we are joined by Belinda Keir. We discuss: Belinda convenes the Sydney MathsJam and is on the committee for the Celebration of Mind What makes a mathematician? Why Belinda is in a car on a ridge above a scout camp How to get non-mathematicians to engage with maths Tensegrity structures Number of the podcast: 12,288 When will I ever use that in real life? Why @robjlow does maths: Because it's fun. Because it's pretty. Because it fills you with wonder. […]

In Episode 56 of Wrong, But Useful, we're joined by @zoelgriffiths (Zoe Griffiths), maths communicator from Think Maths. Zoe had her poem e, to thee, x in @chalkdustmagazine recently, and did a set about misleading statistics at @aeoud (An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail) Bad polls and fake stats, including this from the Mirror and a report on breast cancer screening, righteously rubbished by @dspiegel Number of the podcast: 477277, a prime that would probably get you a taxi (and, indeed, would - if you were in Bolsover - thanks, @mathsjamPOR.) Colin has upgraded his experience of G4G from "would probably […]

This month, it’s Gathering4Gardner special, largely recorded in Atlanta with Adam Atkinson and @dragon_dodo. We discuss: Our favourite talks of the event, including: The Juggler Problem The Taxman Problem Ramanujan Sums Optical illusions Doris Schattschneider’s talk on Marjorie Rice, an amateur mathematician who made huge leaps in the study of tessellating pentagons Artistic adventures in Decatur Drawing on the tables Hyperbolic creations Hexaflexagons Escher exhibition A Zometool sculpture The G4G Youth initiative Ernő Rubik’s panel with Jeff Varasano Elan Lee and Jordan Gold’s amazing talk on how to delight a conference queue Dice and gift bags General things about the […]

In this month’s installment of Wrong, But Useful, Colin and Dave are joined by mathematical editor and proofreader @samhartburn. We apologise for the sound quality. We’ve done the best we can. Sam enjoys @robeastaway‘s Maths On The Go with her primary-school children. Dave plugs Colin’s books. It takes us some time to recover from the shock. Number of the podcast: $10^{6400} – 10^{6352} – 1$, a prime number consisting of 6,399 nines and an eight. Colin mentions the idea of Trinity Hall primes, although not by name. Sam asked for ideas about what makes a good textbook – Dave has […]

In this month’s episode of Wrong But Useful (#53), brought to you by the power of Lemsip and a day in bed, Colin and Dave are joined by Special Guest Co-Hosts @sean_jamshidi and #NikiWithoutTwitter, who are Sean Jamshidi and Niki Kalaydzhieva from Chalkdust Magazine1 in real life. Niki is an analytical number theorist with an interest in outreach; Sean studies oceanic fluid dynamics. We beat our own world record for the most shambolic number of the podcast. It’s 5,830, the sum of the first 53 primes and $53 \times 110$; this will be the last such number until episode 853. […]