Maths in Action

On Wednesday 22 of November Dr Dimakos and Mr Buchan accompanied a group of 20 Sixth Formers to the ‘Maths in Action’ lectures in central London. Lecture highlights included a speaker from Imperial College talking about computer algorithms and their importance in everyday lives, Simon Singh’s description of Fermat’s last theorem, and a UCL speaker’ s take on the misuse of statistics in the media and politics. The whole concept of maths was also discussed – what is it? and what is it for? accompanied by a guitar, of course. The talks were rounded off with the application of AI to data science, including how it is used to guard against criminal activity and terrorism.

Who knows, maybe one of us, inspired by the talk on the immutable nature of mathematical certainties, will be forever remembered through his or her theorem, formula or proof.

Max (Sixth Form)