Category: Mathematics
Kazuo Ishiguro: ‘Were coming close to the point where we can create people who are superior to others’
Social changes unleashed by new technologies could undermine core human values unless we engage with science, warns author. Imagine a two-tiered society with elite citizens, genetically engineered to be smarter, healthier and to live longer, and an underclass of biologically run-of-the-mill humans. It sounds like the plot of a dystopian novel, but the world could […]
Use your wits! Can you solve these fiendishly difficult puzzles?
Isn’t it time we learned to reconnect with the idea of problem-solving for fun? After all, argues Alex Bellos, the best puzzles are pieces of poetry. In an exclusive extract from his new book, he selects some of his favourites. For those of us whose school memories include struggling with long division and quadratic equations, […]
Did you solve it? Where’s the best place to tie your shoe in an airport?
The solution to today’s travel teaser. Earlier today I asked you the following questions: You are in an airport, and you are walking from security to your gate. The distance includes stretches of travelator, or moving walkway, and stretches of floor. You have a constant walking speed, u, and the travelators also have constant speed, […]
Genius by numbers: why Hollywood maths movies don’t add up
From A Beautiful Mind to The Theory of Everything and The Man Who Knew Infinity, Hollywood loves a mathematician. So why cant it get beyond the fevered prodigy scribbling equations on windows? In the Tina Fey sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, wealthy Manhattanite Jacqueline Vorhees wails to her assistant that she cant afford to get divorced. […]
GCSE Mathematics Compared to GCE – A Betrayal of Standards
by Internet Archive Book Images In the U.K prior to 1986 there were two separate exams for 16 year-olds, running parallel to each other. These were the C.S.E.(Certificate of secondary education) and the G.C.E.(General Certificate of Education). The G.C.E. was as an exam-only based qualification that would allow students to carry on with secondary education […]