It’s a date: Happy Addition/Multiplication/Division/Subtraction Day!

I like dates that make nice patterns, so I was quite pleased to notice that yesterday’s date made an addition statement. I wrote 14/1/15 on the whiteboard in my classroom, spotted the pattern and then changed what I had written to say 14+1=15 Happy Addition Day!

Quite a few students remarked on this and started […]

Exactly how much do those chips cost?

How would you write three pounds and fifty pence in figures?

When walking through central London at the weekend, I noticed something slightly unusual about the menu pinned up outside the Golden Fleece pub:

I thought it was odd, but assumed it was a one-off. Then I spotted the same thing on the […]

(An Unusual) Measure for Measure

How much is too much? We have plenty of space in the back of the car, but when buying bags of sand and pebbles as we did today, the big concern isn’t space, it’s weight. I didn’t want to do more trips to the builders’ merchant than necessary, neither did I want to be the […]

Book review: n Mathematical Quotations (where n ~ 100) by Colin Beveridge

I like maths. I like quotations. Obviously this book appealed to me.

I was expecting a standard book of quotations, but was pleased to discover that this wasn’t quite what I had anticipated.

There are, as the title suggests, around 100 mathematical quotations from people as diverse as the hoopy frood Douglas Adams, Nobel […]

From the heart

I don’t really do Valentine’s Day. To say Mr TLC dislikes it would be putting it rather mildly, so to be honest, it’s just not worth the hassle.

I changed my mind today though, when Peter Rowlett tweeted a link to a Möbius Valentine’s card. (Yes, I am more than mildly obsessed with Möbius strips […]

You know you’ve become a geek when…

You know you’ve become a geek when you buy bagels, not because you have a desperate urge to eat them, but because you want to try this.

Sadly, I failed. My shop-bought bagels were a tad dry and powdery. As a result they disintegrated. Then again, maybe it was just my lack of skill. Still, […]

A Foolish Day

I spent today dating, American style. Why? Because 4 01 2009 is just so more interesting than plain old April Fool’s Day. 4012009 is in fact a perfect square, something I found far more interesting than anyone else, but fear not, I didn’t let that stop me from telling, oh, just about everyone. For no […]

Not Normal

This morning, by way of a little light relief after the rigours of their GCSE exam yesterday, I set my Y9 group the task of researching pi and Pi Day in order to make some posters for display.

They made some brilliant posters. My favourite was the one from which I discovered that ‘Pi Day […]

Too Old…

You may never be too old to rock ‘n’ roll, but it seems that different rules apply in my chosen profession.

Stupid Question of the Day

How was Everest’s height measured before Hilary [sic] and Tenzing conquered it? Daily Mirror reader M Fielder, from Whitstable

I can’t quite get over that phrase “before Hillary and Tenzing conquered it.” Does M Fielder think that Hillary and Tenzing climbed up to the summit holding one end of a giant tape measure?

Proof, if […]