Physics and Chocolate By year 12 Physicists

Believe it or not physics is involved in chocolate production. Without the careful use of temperature and pressure we wouldn’t have the wonderful confectionary that adults and children alike have grown to love. On October 17th year 12 physics students went to the Chocolate Show to learn more about the production of chocolate. The above […]

Physics and the British Museum

Those people who know me will tell you that I hate traipsing round museums. I have had two brilliant jobs at museums (the V & A and the Science Museum) but I would much rather read about something in a book, in fact I have been known to buy the museum guide without actually going […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Postscript I really enjoyed the Goldsmiths’ maths course but I did find most of it very difficult. The Queen Mary maths staff were brilliant so if you are kind enough to read my blog and you find mistakes they are entirely my own. I would be very grateful if you could let me know anything […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Friday 25th July Open Problems in Mathematics Dr Thomas Prellberg What is Mathematics? What we’d like our prospective students to know: Mathematics is not: just “doing things with numbers and letters and other symbols” just a collection of facts and rote recipes just computational and arithmetic skills – although learning the times table by heart […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Friday 25th July Group Theory Dr Matt Fayers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics) In mathematics, a group is a set of elements together with an operation that combines any two of its elements to form a third element satisfying four conditions called the group axioms, namely closure, associativity, identity and invertibility. One of the most familiar examples of a […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Thursday 24th July Game theory Dr. Reto Mueller r.mueller@qmul.ac.uk Game Theory is the study of strategic decision making Game Theory is the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers. An alternative name for this theory is ”interactive decision theory”. Game theory is mainly used in economics, political science, and psychology, […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Thursday 24th July Number Theory Matt Parker matt@standupmaths.com http://standupmaths.com/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/standupmaths http://www.think-maths.co.uk Matt Parker, known as the Stand-up Mathematician, can be seen talking about Maths on the BBC, in The Guardian and on stages across the UK – at science fairs, festivals and in theatres. Once a normal Maths Teacher, his first love is still […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Thursday 24th July Complex Networks Dr G Bianconi What does complex mean? 1) composed of many interconnected parts; compound; composite: a complex highway system. 2) characterised by a very complicated or involved arrangement of parts, units, etc.: complex machinery. 3) so complicated or intricate as to be hard to understand or deal with: a complex […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Thursday 24th July Medical Statistics Professor Joan Morris Folic Acid and Neural Tube Defects Randomised Controlled Trial A clinical trial is an experiment in which a treatment is administered to humans in order to evaluate its efficacy and safety Controlled = a comparison group Randomised = allocated to groups on basis of chance e.g. tossing […]

Goldsmiths’ 2014 Mathematics

Thursday 24th July Using statistics to learn about sensitive issues Dr Heiko Grossman Surveys, opinion polls, probability and statistics are used to find sensible estimates for things. If you are going to design a survey/ask questions you do need to be careful how you phrase them. Some examples: Should the UK adopt the Euro? Our […]