In this newsletter:
* Latest news
* Plus podcasts
* Mathematical moments
* Browse with Plus
* Live maths
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Latest news
* Hello? Is there anybody out there?
Mathematics tackles an eternal question
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr08/evolution/index.html
* The butterfly flap felt across the world
The father of chaos theory dies
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr08/butterfly2/index.html
* Country road, take me home
Road colouring problem solved
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr08/road/index.html
Plus... read more on the Plus blog, including reports from the Edinburgh
International Science Festival
http://plus.maths.org/blog
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Plus podcasts
Podcast 8, April 2008: Codes and codebreaking - the Enigma machine
Breaking the Enigma Code
The Enigma machine was once considered unbreakable, and the cracking of the
"unbreakable code" by the allies changed the course of World War 2. This
week, Plus talks to Nadia Baker from the Enigma Project about the history of
codes and code-breaking, why the Enigma machine was considered unbreakable,
the mathematics behind codes, and how it was finally cracked. The Enigma
Project travels all over the United Kingdom and abroad, visiting over 100
schools and organisations, reaching over 12,000 people of all ages every
year.
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/PlusPodcastApril08.mp3
For all Plus podcasts, see:
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/
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Mathematical moments
Siméon Denis Poisson
Born: 21 June 1781 in Pithiviers, France
Died: 25 April 1840 in Sceaux, France
Siméon-Denis Poisson was a French mathematician and physicist who once
stated:
"Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching
mathematics."
Poisson was a student of Laplace and Lagrange and achieved highly at a young
age, writing a memoir on finite differences at 18 and graduating at 19
without needing to take the final examination. He then moved immediately to
the position of repetiteur at Ecole Polytechnique, which was quite an
achievement as most top mathematicians had to serve in the provinces before
getting a post in Paris.
In 1802, Poisson was named deputy professor and in 1806 he was appointed to
the professorship that had been vacated by none other than Fourier. During
this period, he studied ordinary and partial differential equations, and in
particular their application to physical problems such as the pendulum and
the theory of sound.
In 1808, Poisson became an astronomer at Bureau des Longitudes and in 1809
he added the chair of mechanics in Faculte des Sciences to his impressive
list of appointments. In 1808 and 1809 Poisson published three important
papers, the first investigating mathematical problems raised by Laplace and
Lagrange about perturbations of the planets, and the others incorporating
developments in Lagrange's method of variation of arbitrary constants which
had been inspired by the first of Poisson's three papers. In addition, he
published a new edition of Clairaut's "Theorie de la figure de la terre",
which had first been published by Clairaut in 1743 and confirmed the
Newton-Huygens belief that the Earth was flattened at the poles.
In 1811, Poisson won a "Grand Prix" on electricity studies and in 1813 his
results regarding the potential in the interior of attracting masses found
application in electrostatics. Papers followed on the velocity of sound in
gasses, on the propagation of heat, and on elastic vibrations.
It was in his 1837 work "Recherches sur la probabilite des jugements en
matière criminelle et matière civile" that the Poisson probability
distribution first appears. This distribution describes the probability that
a random event will occur in a time interval when the probability of the
event occurring is very small and the number of trials very large.
He published between 300 and 400 mathematical works and his name is
associated to a wide variety of ideas including Poisson's integral,
Poisson's equation in potential theory, Poisson brackets in differential
equations, Poisson's ratio in elasticity, and Poisson's constant in
electricity. However, he was not highly regarded by other French
mathematicians, with his reputation much higher among foreign mathematicians
than his country-folk.
For more on Poisson, see his MacTutor biography:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Poisson.html
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Browse with Plus
* MathsNet A-Level Plus
MathsNet A-Level Plus is an online resource to support the study of Advanced
Level Mathematics, and may also prove to be a useful support and refreshe
resource at the school-university transition. It includes algebra, graphs,
trigonometry, differentiation, calculus, vectors, numerical methods,
probability, statistics, mechanics, complex numbers and matrices. All UK
exam boards are catered for: AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR, MEI, WJEC, Scottish
Highers and the International Baccalaureate.
Access online is free for the next few weeks.
The Maths, Stats and OR Network would also like to hear from anyone who
would like to write a review of MathsNet A Level Plus from a higher
education teaching and learning perspective; please email the editors at
[log in to unmask] to express your interest in writing a review.
http://www.mathsnetalevel.com/
* iSquared Magazine
At Plus, we like fellow maths-minded magazines. iSquared is a new maths
magazine focusing on the growing number of real-world applications of
mathematics. The most recent issue includes an interview with Met Office
climatologist John Hughes and a feature article about mathematics in
neuroscience. A single issue only costs £2.90, and to subscribe for the year
(4 issues) costs £10.40 for UK addresses, and £15.40 internationally.
http://www.isquaredmagazine.co.uk/
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Live maths
* The Maths of Celtic Knots
Friday 20th June 2008, 11.00 - 12.00 pm
Dr Jenny Gage, Millennium Mathematics Project
Venue: Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Clarkson Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WA
In this workshop we will explore the mathematics of Celtic Knots. We will
learn how the dimensions of simple knots determine the number of strands
from which the knots are formed, as well as the number of times the strands
cross each other. We will make predictions about the nature of these
mathematical relationships and test them out. Then we will examine more
complex knots, investigating the patterns which determine their construction
and how their symmetry is related to these patterns.
About the speaker: Dr Jenny Gage was a mathematics teacher for some 15 years
before joining the MMP as the academic coordinator for the Motivate
videoconferencing project. She is passionate about providing students and
teachers with personal, hands-on mathematical experiences, and about
facilitating maths opportunities beyond the confines of a syllabus.
Recently, she has worked with teachers and students in South Africa and
Pakistan, both in person and remotely. Developing these and other
international links is an important focus of Jenny's work with the MMP.
Level: suggested age range - 12-14 / KS 3
Admission to all our lectures is free but by ticket only: please email
Kerstin Enright ([log in to unmask]) stating clearly the date and
title of the lecture you would like to attend and how many tickets you
require, and we will confirm your ticket allocation by email.
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Happy reading from the Plus team.
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Marc West
Plus Magazine
http://plus.maths.org
Millennium Mathematics Project, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA
Phone: +44 (0) 1223764268
email: [log in to unmask]
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