Happy Birthday To You! And You! And You….

It is the of September meaning it is the birthday of a very good friend of mine. Logging on to Facebook this morning though, I learnt it was also the birthday of more friends of mine. What are the chances of that? Those of you familiar with the “Birthday Paradox” will be slyly grinning to

Sunday’s Summons: Pentagonal Pandemonium

I, Sophie the Mathmo, hereby summon you to complete this challenge: On Tuesday, I posted about regular polygons tiling the plane and we discussed how a regular pentagon does not tile the plane (https://sophiethemathmo.wordpress.com/2020/09/02/protests-plane-tiling-and-ppe/). However, there are irregular convex pentagons that tile the plane monohedrally (i.e. with using the same identical shape repeatedly). How many

Interview: Before and After a Maths Degree

Lucy is about to start a degree in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, which is where I have just graduated from with (you’ve guessed it) a degree in Mathematics. I caught up with Lucy to find out how she felt about it, and she asked me some of her own questions in return! Sophie

Protests, Plane Tiling, and PPE

If you’re reading this around the time of publication, you may be aware that there is currently an Extinction Rebellion (XR) protest going on in London. Protesting in a pandemic brings with it a whole host of different challenges that organisers have had to contend with. The most obvious of these are ensuring that everyone

Sunday’s Summons: Can 2020 Change?

I, Sophie the Mathmo, hereby summon you to complete this challenge: How many ways can you make £ using currency in circulation in Britain? Good luck and see you next week for another Sunday’s Summons

Sunday’s Summons: All 4 One

I, Sophie the Mathmo, hereby summon you to complete this challenge: Can you create all the integers from to using precisely four s? You may use common mathematical symbols but no other numbers. E.g (this is not the only way of calculating ) Good luck and see you next week for another Sunday’s Summons

Welcome Puzzle: Discussion

A discussion of the puzzle posed in the post “Welcome”. To view this post, use the password “Let Me In”

Podcast Announcement!

I’m pleased to announce that over the coming few months Ill be releasing not one but TWO podcasts! The Maths Aftermath is the show where I try and answer the question “What do you do with a Maths degree?”. Each episode, I will be joined by a recent maths graduate, championing a different career. We

From the Archives: Volume of a Sphere

This article was first published on 14/02/15 on a blog I ran at the time. It is republished here unedited, in it’s entirety The volume of a sphere is something I have used to solve problems for a while but it wasn’t until very recently that I was able to work out why it is

Magic Calendars

As I write this, I’m sitting at my desk in the middle of a summer heatwave. The meagre fan on my desk is doing very little to keep me cool. I’ve stopped drinking anything that doesn’t have ice in it. I can feel the sweat sticking me to my chair. So naturally, I’m thinking about