Author Archives: A Maths Teacher

2017 – A prime year

Its been a fallow time for “Prime Dates” of late – the last was way back in November 2013 (a quick moments thought should reveal why there were no prime dates in 2014, ’15 or ’16) but now the drought is over, let the deluge begin. 2017 is, itself, a prime number and the year […]

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5318008 …

… a tale of calculators then and now   Back in my day at school, calculators in the classroom were in their infancy – I was in the last year that were not allowed calculators in their O Level maths exam, although we did use them in A Level Maths. We thought they were pretty […]

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Ranking the rankings

And so, with a moth invasion rather than a pitch invasion, the Euro 16 competition has come to an end, with Portugal claiming the crown of champions with an extra time winner. Not many predicted them as tournament winners, but then that is one of the beauties of the beautiful game, its unpredictability: “Favourites win […]

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Shadows

A street in Bath paved with octagonal shadows. Look up to see the reason why: Mix sunshine and an art installation and it all adds up to maths! Related posts: Has the PM been reading my blog? The Sausage Sandwich Game Meet Mrs Edwards … Outstanding coursework!

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What’s the point?

“What’s the point?” the question we hear from students all too frequently. “When am I ever going to need this?” “Do I really need to know trigonometry?” Tricky questions, and I never feel satisfied with the answers I give my pupils. Who knows when someone will use a trig ratio in later life, but that’s […]

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