On Friday 25th of February seven students from Year 12 Ewell Castle School visited the Royal Institution at Green Park and listened to seven leading mathematicians talking about their work and the wonders of Maths. We heard from James Grime talking about internet maths, Jen Rogers who spoke about her work as a top statistician, Rob Eastaway, a puzzle expert and an author, Nicole Cozens, a maths teacher and an exam expert (who gave us some tips on what examiners looks out for and what not to do), Matt Parker, a stand-up comedian who’s material focuses around mathematical topics, and finally, Ben Sparks who spoke about music and maths and how closely these are connected. Here, I will describe the last two of these talks into more detail.

Matt Parker is a regular presenter of maths programmes on television and for BBC News and has written two maths books. His second book called ‘Humble Pi’ became a No.1 Sunday Times best seller, the first maths book ever to reach this position. Matt hosted the days’ events and introduced the other mathematicians to the stage. Later in the day, he shared some of his favourite mathematical puzzles which got us thinking in a fun and creative way. As confirmed by the enthusiastic cheers from the audience, Matt was the perfect host with his sense of humour and ease of manner when in front of crowd.

Ben Sparks is a busker who is currently travelling around the country spreading his love of maths and music. His talk was called the ‘Sound of Silence’ and how sometimes silence is not silent at all. He showed this by performing a short demonstration. He started with two identical music tracks which he had pre-recoded on his computer. Ben zoomed into both tracks to show the different sound waves created when notes were created by the various musical instruments. He then ‘flipped one of the tracks’ by 180 degrees, so that it became the mirror image of the original track. He then played the merged tracks to show how they sounded together. Interestingly, for the short duration where the tracks had been flipped, the music became silent. Ben explained that this is the principle behind the technology used for noise cancelling headphones. At the end of his talk he treated us to a performance of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Sound of Silence’ while singing and playing his guitar.  

In conclusion, we all enjoyed a thoroughly informative and entertaining day. There was a strong, fun atmosphere around the auditorium which kept everyone listening and thinking about maths in new ways. My friends and I are looking forward to another opportunity to visit the Royal Institution again and would recommend the event to anyone interested in maths and all the fascinating ways it connects to our living world.

 

By Kamran Seward