We were divided into 2 groups: Diophantus and Euler.
Our first seminar was taken by Martyn Parker, a mathematics lecturer at the University of Keele, who taught us the mathematics behind animal locomotion. The point of this seminar was to prove how mathematics can be combined, not only with physics and chemistry in science, but also with biology. Animal locomotion looks at how limbs move in accordance with each other in a mathematical structure. We looked at animals with different numbers of legs and how they use different gaits to adapt to their everyday uses and needs. The use of certain gaits reserves more energy whilst others allow faster speed. The lecture was an interesting insight into how Maths can be used to look into something different related to science, rather than the usual physics related topics.
Euler’s first programmed event was my personal favourite, as Tom Button taught us how Maths relates to the wavelengths of each music note and how it affects which notes sound good together in music. Most of us enjoyed this lecture as we got to compose our own piece using numbers for notes.
We followed with a game of the tower of Hanoi and the mathematics behind it. We played it life sized with 3 students and several rubber rings! The students interacted well with this activity and we were also amazed to see how certain equations can form items of nature, like a fern leaf for example.
For the next session we all mixed with different schools and created a new group of students for a quiz. Unfortunately Highcliffe didn’t win but we earned ourselves a well-deserved lunch where we sat outside the Uni and got a feel for the surroundings.
For group Diophantus, they spent their morning hearing about forces connected with gears and energy. It was very informative. One of the best sessions was the game theory, and gave a background to how to be successful at dating and rock paper scissors. It was a very fun session with helpful videos.
Our concluding seminar was ‘The Creation of Numbers’ taken by Ben Sparks. In the seminar we discussed how numbers were either created or found. It also looked at the counting ‘natural’ numbers and how numbers can be 2 dimensional, which moved us to look at A-Level Maths. This session was really intriguing but confused a few of the students.
On the whole, this trip has given us a great insight into the application of Maths into the world, and has sparked an interest in all of us to look at Maths at A-Level and perhaps degree level.
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