The Flying Colours Maths blog has been running posts twice weekly since 2012, covering maths from the basics to… well, the most advanced stuff I have a clue about.
Here they all are, sorted by date. Some day, other ways to filter them will be possible.
“$\sin(15º)$,” said the GCSE student, and the Mathematical Ninja – recognising that the qualification recognised idiotic angle measures – let it slide. “0.2588”, they muttered, under their breath, knowing full well that the exact answer – $\frac{\sqrt{6} - …
In this month’s exciting instalment of Wrong, But Useful, @reflectivemaths and @icecolbeveridge discuss: The number of the podcast: 36.16 seconds, the current world record for sorting a pack of cards Dave is reading The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure – and asks what happens if …
Ask Uncle Colin is a chance to ask your burning, possibly embarrassing, maths questions – and to show off your skills at coming up with clever acronyms. Send your questions to colin@flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk and Uncle Colin will do what he can. Dear Uncle Colin, How do I solve $3x^{\frac{2}{3}} …
A redditor asks: How would I find a good rational approximation to something like $\log_{10}(7)$? The Mathematical Ninja mutters 0.85 under his breath, as a matter of course, reasoning that $\log_{10}(7) \approx \log_{10}\left(\sqrt{ \frac {10^2 }{2} } \right)$, although my calculator says 0.845098, …
Ask Uncle Colin is a chance to ask your burning, possibly embarrassing, maths questions – and to show off your skills at coming up with clever acronyms. Send your questions to colin@flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk and Uncle Colin will do what he can. Dear Uncle Colin How can you look at a matrix and …
“Let me see that!” commanded the Mathematical Ninja, looking at one of the Mathematical Pirate’s blog posts. “That’s… but that’s…” “It’s not wrong!” said the Mathematical Pirate, smugly. “It just works!” “But …
Ask Uncle Colin is a chance to ask your burning, possibly embarrassing, maths questions – and to show off your skills at coming up with clever acronyms. Send your questions to colin@flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk and Uncle Colin will do what he can. Dear Uncle Colin, I know how to use the …
“Arr?” said the student, really not sure. “No, no, $r$,” said the Mathematical Pirate. “The centre is at C – or $(a,\, b)$, if you prefer – and the radius is $r$.” “Gotcha. So, if you’ve got something like $x^2 + y^2 + 8x - 12y + 3=0$, how …
Ask Uncle Colin is a chance to ask your burning, possibly embarrassing, maths questions – and to show off your skills at coming up with clever acronyms. Send your questions to colin@flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk and Uncle Colin will do what he can. Dear Uncle Colin, I have a slightly embarrassing …
Another piece from the Flying Colours Cartoonist, Dominika. Click to enlarge.
Ask Uncle Colin is a chance to ask your burning, possibly embarrassing, maths questions – and to show off your skills at coming up with clever acronyms. Send your questions to colin@flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk and Uncle Colin will do what he can. Dear Uncle Colin, I’m having a topology …
A few months ago, @reflectivemaths (Dave Gale in real life) tweeted the following: An excellent question, much as it pains me to give Dave credit for anything. My personal view: the student has given a perfectly reasonable response to the question, one that is – if anything – more …
Ask Uncle Colin is a chance to ask your burning, possibly embarrassing, maths questions – and to show off your skills at coming up with clever acronyms. Send your questions to colin@flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk and Uncle Colin will do what he can. Dear Uncle Colin, I’ve been trying to …
@DrBennison (Tom Bennison in real life) recently posted about his mathematical journey and wondered what other people’s looked like. Happy to oblige. I almost didn’t study maths at university. Most subject teachers are thrilled when you suggest you might study their speciality, but I was …
Dear Uncle Colin, I’m a bit confused! Someone told me that 40% of all Americans on welfare are black, which means that 66% of black Americans are on welfare. How did they work this out? I don’t get it, and it’s bothering me. -- Always Back Equality Legistlation Hi, ABEL! No wonder …
In this month’s thrilling instalment of the nation’s #1 maths podcast1 , @reflectivemaths and I discuss… The recent leap second The number of the podcast, 999,999,999,998,999,999,999,999. Farey sequences - introducing the mediant of two fractions A couple of agreeable sequences, …
Dear Uncle Colin, I was recently on a tour of a whisky distillery where the guide told us about the ‘angel’s share’: every year, 2% of the alcohol in a bottle evaporates. He went on to explain that a 25-year-old single malt would have half the alcohol it did originally. That …
A puzzle that occurred to me watching Wimbledon this week: A tennis match goes to five sets. The number of games one of the players wins in each set forms an arithmetic series. Given that the two players won the same number of games in total, who won the match? How many possible solutions are there? …
Dear Uncle Colin, I read somewhere that if you work out $\frac{1}{999,999,999,998,999,999,999,999}$, you get the Fibonacci sequence. Is that really true? Is there witchcraft at work? -- Feeling Inspired By Ordinary Numbers; Arithmetic Calculation Can Intimidate! Hi, FIBONACCI! First, to put your …
Funny thing. Type $(2 + \sqrt{3})^{20}$ into Wolfram Alpha. (Or, if you’re really lazy, click this link. ). It’s 274,758,382,273.999999999996 or so. The higher the power you pick, the closer $(2 + \sqrt{3})^n$ gets to an integer value – although it never quite gets there, because …
Former Formula 1 driver @MBrundleF1 asks: (Obviously, he didn’t ask me specifically, but I thought it was a good question.) From a pragmatic point of view, to be in a phone poll, I’d presume you’d need to have your phone number available for people to ring, you’d need to …
My dear readers, it is not often I become angry. Rage is not an emotion that frequently troubles Flying Colours Towers. A sharp word for a student who is trying to wind me up, perhaps once in a while, but rarely a rant. As the man says, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry. However, …
A challenge question: The curve with equation $y=e^{kx}$ is tangent to the curve with equation $y=x^2$. Find $k$. Curves tangent to other curves? Well, why not! Tangent just means ’touching’ – so as long as there’s a point common to both curves where the gradients are the …
At granny’s house, it always seems to go the same way after lunch: Bill and his cousin chase each other around the dining room, while the adults try to make head or tail of their toys. This Sunday was no different: the toy in question comprised a large number of red straws and fewer, but still …
When you said you wanted to do maths A-level, I imagine people pursed their lips and said “oo, it’s a big step up.” They’re right, to an extent: every October I get deluged with panicked students who realise that the ‘coast through it all doing just enough’ …
A student asks: “I’ve got my calculator paper coming up – I’m not really struggling with anything, I just get nervous! How can I make sure I do as well as I know I can? That’s a great question! First up: keep reminding yourself that you don’t really struggle with anything — …
Gosh, who would have thought it? 15,000 students (at the time of writing) have signed a petition to get EdExcel to change the grade boundaries for Thursday’s non-calculator GCSE paper. Good luck with that. The boundaries will have been set using magic statistics, and either have been or will …
In this month’s thrilling instalment of the world’s #1 maths chatter podcast, @reflectivemaths (Dave) and I discuss… The number of the podcast: 1000000000000066600000000000001, Belfigore’s prime. The rollercoaster question and the role of common sense in exams Colin’s …
On Twitter, @tessmaths asks: … which is such a good question, it would be rude not to answer. Here’s what I’ll be doing with my GCSE students this week, and what I’d recommend to anyone looking for last-minute revision tips. 1. Review basic arithmetic Make sure you know how …
Until fairly recently, you could throw a handkerchief over the variety of normal distribution questions you might expect to see in an EdExcel S1 exam. It would be one or more of: given a mean and a standard deviation, work out the probability that the random variable is larger or smaller than a …