Popular Science
Bang goes the theory
I recently appeared on the BBC's flagship science programme Bang Goes the Theory with Dr Yan Wong discussing properties of a special set of curves called the conic sections.These curves are the shapes made by the rim of a cone when you cut it (see figure below). They have all sorts of practical applications, but I'll let you watch the video to find out.
The conic sections, curves in green, are the curves you get when you slice through a cone. They are called (1) the parabola, (2) the ellipse (of which a circle is a special case) and (3) the hyperbola.
Marcus' Marvellous Mathemagicians
I work with the Oxford University Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Marcus Du Sautoy as part of his 'Mathemagicians' group (M3). We run workshops, activities and give talks about maths to a wide range of audiences.
As part of this group I have had the opportunity to give several high-profile popular maths talks:
The group have gained some notoriety and featured in various news media:
Inside the mathemagical labyrinth - University of Oxford
Return of the Roadshow: 2009
Pitching science in a tent,
STEM ambassador
I am a registerred STEM (Sceicne Technology Engineering and Mathematics) ambassador. As part of this excellent scheme I do out-reach events in schools, museums and a variety of other interesting places:WOW! HOW?
Each March the Natural History Museum in Oxford run a science event. Scientist from all walks of life come together to man stalls each illustrating a different area of scientific enquiry. These areas range from demonstrations of the extreme cold properties of liquid nitrogen to extracting DNA from strawberries. This year I organised and ran the "Bernouilli effect" stall. We demonstrated Bernoulli's principle, that faster moving air has a lower pressure. This has some important results; from keeping planes in the air (air moves faster over the top of the wing and slower underneath creating a "lift force") to causing a free-kick to curve (the spin of the ball effects the air flow around the ball and causes a lower pressure on one side than the other which makes it move). We found a really simple demonstration of this using a household drinking straw and a polystyrene ball (see the picture below).
The air moves faster in the middle of the flow and slower the further away from the centre of the straw you go meaning that the pressure is higher away from the centre of the flow. Everytime the ball tries to move away from the centre of the flow is gets pushed back by the higher pressure. Have a go yourself at home!
Articles
From April 2010-January 2011 I was a sub-editor on the Oxford University science magazine, Bang! I edit several articles for each issue and write a few as well.11/2010 - "The domino effect : Teasing out the hidden mathematics of dominos."
06/2010 - "1,2,3 and away ... : Counting to infinity and beyond."
03/2010 - "The Poetry of Pi."
I also have an article due to appear on the popular maths website plus.
Funny Maths Pictures
03/2010 - I won the Funny Maths Image competition run by Ignition and Camouflaged learning.Here's my winning entry and a few of the others I put forwards. Whilst I designed these they are not all my original ideas. Please feel to use any of them if you think they'd be useful. Let me know if you use them for anything interesting.
