The Aperiodical

A conversation about mathematics inspired by a tangerine (no, really!). Presented by Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett.

A conversation about mathematics inspired by a pile of matchsticks. Presented by Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett.

A conversation about mathematics inspired by a set of Tantrix tiles, a beaded necklace and some juggling balls. Presented by Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett, with special guest Alex Corner.

A conversation about mathematics inspired by a stick of chalk. Presented by Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett.

A conversation about mathematics inspired by a t-shirt featuring Pythagoras’ theorem. Presented by Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett.

A conversation about mathematics inspired by the Towers of Hanoi puzzle. Presented by Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett. Update: Here’s a lovely knitted Towers of Hanoi, tweeted in response to this episode by Pat Ashforth. @mathsobjects @aperiodical I have a knitted one (and a larger crochet one with ten rings) https://t.co/NCah3d24LQ pic.twitter.com/l6L0Jpi6G8— Pat Ashforth (1948 – 2021) (@matheknitician) April 1, 2019

Presented by Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett, episodes of Mathematical Objects will take an object, real or abstract, as inspiration to chat about a mathematical topic. This introduction explains the idea ahead of the first episode, coming soon.

As part of our special Apéry takeover today, I chatted to mathematicians Ben Sparks and James Grime, to find out what we know about the mathematics Apéry did – it’s an enjoyable 10-minute listen.

Cushing was injured in a serious maths accident recently (he fell out of the bath) so I wanted to assess the damage to his number-wrangling faculties. Fortunately, there’s the National Numeracy Challenge, which begins with a test to pinpoint your weak areas. National Numeracy is a charity that wants every adult in the UK to “reach a level of numeracy skills that allow them to meet their full potential.” Well, if there’s one thing we’ve got, it’s bags of potential. So I called David up and we took the test together. Because I had my fears about how it might go, I recorded our conversation. You can listen to that below. You’ll probably get the most out of it if you follow along with the test yourself, by going to nnchallenge.org.uk and signing up. It only takes a minute! WARNING: Spoilers ahead         We got to Level 2! And it turns out it did give us certificates! More information Take the National Numeracy Challenge (or, since you’re reading this site, share that link with your relatives) National Numeracy

MathsJam is an annual conference in the UK, and a monthly night in pubs around the world, organised respectively by mathematician and juggler Colin Wright, and stand-up mathematician Matt Parker. We cornered Matt and Colin at the MathsJam conference last November, and talked to them for just over half an hour about the conference, the pub nights, and a disturbing amount about cake. Here are some links to the things we talked about: MathsJam website MathsJam conference website @MathsJam, on Twitter MathsJam Bake-off entries, 2013 Matt’s maths mug