Anna Hull (Lower Sixth)

On Tuesday, 30 Lower Sixth Mathematics attended the Maths in Action event at the Emmanuel Centre in London. The event provided an opportunity to listen to lectures from a range of experts in the field and discover the wide-ranging applications of mathematical ideas.

The day began with a lecture by Simon Singh that demonstrated the emotional power of Maths, a concept perhaps hitherto unimaginable to the audience. He showed footage of how Andrew Wiles was overcome with emotion after proving that Fermat’s Last Theorem had no solutions, something which had been unproven since the 17th century. This had taken Wiles eight years of hard work, involving many setbacks, to achieve.

Michael Blastland’s presentation about the problematic use of statistics in the media was pertinent to the age of online news sources, demonstrating how data can be taken out of context to fit a journalist’s political agenda. Using imagination to question the ‘facts’ presented, as well as reliable resources such as the website of the Office for National Statistics, can help prevent deception. By the end, everyone in the audience was more informed about how to combat these questionable claims.

The final lecture of the day was by Dr. Jackie Bell, who notably appeared on the BBC programme Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? She delivered an inspiring speech about how Maths helped her in her dream of becoming an astronaut, and showed that despite having some regrets about her choice of options at university, she is still working to achieve her goal of going to space.

Overall, this was an informative day that highlighted the applications of Maths outside the classroom, and will be a useful supplement to the girls’ respective studies.