Posts Tagged ‘mathspig’

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OMG! Credit Card Antenna Geometry is so cool + some PIN Probability

January 24, 2023

The world  has mostly agreed on the size of a credit card:

Credit cards today contain a microchip and aerial.

A credit card is dissolved in ACETONE (solvent found in some nail polish removers) to extract the chip & aerial in this BBC video.

 

OMG! The cardless chip still works to pay for coffee. But if you wanted cash you would still need the PIN.

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How to Teach Maths … funny … funny … funny … BBC 4 Podcast

January 14, 2023

The BBC 4 THE INFINITE MONKEY CAGE podcast How to Teach Maths hosted by Brian Cox and Robin Ince is soooo funny and informative. This is not just for Maths lovers. Included on the panel are comedian Sara Pascoe and the very numerate Prof Hannah Fry, maths comedian Matt Parker and statistician Prof David Spiegelhalter. 

It is worth listening to Prof Brian Cox say he wasn’t so good at maths at school. But he loved PHYSICS. Prof Cox studied as a mature age student!!!!!!!!!

Find Podcast here:

How to TEACH MATHS WEBSiTE BBC 4 here

How to TEACH MATHS PODBEAN here

How to TEACH MATHS TUNEin here

How to TEACH MATHS Apple Podcasts here

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MOZZIE MATHS: How much blood do those little blood suckers suck?

December 9, 2022

You can learn almost everything you need to know about mosquitoes from this article on:

The Conversation.

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Dangerous Math: Death by Snake, Spider, Quad bike, Kangaroo, Raccoon and Vomit

November 17, 2022

It’s almost summer in Australia. In Melbourne we’ve had floods, mosquito – mozzie- numbers surge and, last Wednesday, I nearly stood on a Tiger Snake that was escaping the floods near the Yarra River! 

This post, however, is really a PR exercise for sharks. We fear them. We’re horrified by the thought of being eaten alive!!!. We only have to hear the soundtrack from JAWS to feel the fear. Then we see news footage like the attack below and think it happens all the time. Look at that fin. It’s enormous! But sharks are not THAT dangerous. We really need to look at the statistics to understand the level of threat. See below.

Why do we fear sharks? Look at the numbers. REALLY. Show your students. What about stairs??? Quad bikes? Chairs? Bees? That’s when you should feel the fear!!! We are irrational beings. This is why we need maths. We can make rational decisions using maths. There is also a safety message here. The maths speaks for itself. We won’t hammer it.

THE MATHS:

There is lots of maths you can do with these tables.

  • Bar Graphs
  • Pie Charts
  • Ratios (What’s the ratio of death by Snake to Quad Bike?)
  • Fractions (Show death by jet ski to falling down stairs as a fraction)
  • Percentages
  • Powers to the base 10. How many deaths occur in each country per 100,000 or 1 x 10head of population for, say, Quad bikes or ATVs? We can use these numbers to compare death rates and find out how dangerous riding a Quad bike is in each country.

……..Population Data 2022

……..Aust…26 million = 26 x 106

……..USA…332 million = 332 x 106

……..Canada…38 million = 38 x 106

……..UK…67 million = 67 x 106

But we’re doing this for the SHARKS!!! Death Australia Mathspig

  1. Cyclists. 2. emergency lanes 3. fell off a chair 4.QUAD BIKES. 5. Horse, donkey. 6. buses 7. Cow, bull. 8. ice skates, skis or skateboards. 9. Venemous snake 10. kangaroo 11. bee 12. emu 13. Jet ski 14. Shark 15. Crocodile

Death USA Mathspig 21. Quad Bike or ATV: In 2007, 107 children younger than 16 were killed on ATVs. 2. Cyclists 3. choke on vomit  4. Cats, cows, horses, pigs, raccoons. 5. Bees, wasps  6.PWC or Jet Ski 7. Lightning 8. Xmas tree fires 9. Snowboard 10. Venomous Spider  11. Scorpions 12. Venomous Snakes , lizards. 13.Crocs & gators  14. Shark Death Canada Mathspig

  1. ATV Quad Bike 2. Canoe  3. Kayak 4. PWC or Jet Ski  5. Unpowered inflatable 6. Avalanches or landslides. 7. Lightning 8. Toboggan 9. Moose –Car collision 10. Bears (All Nth America) 11. Rattle Snake 12. Wolves 13. Shark

Death UK Mathspig

  1. falling down stairs.  2. Cyclists.  3. Choke on vomit   4. Falling off Chairs 5.  QUAD BIKE or ATV 6. Buses 7. Struck by cow, horse, other mammal 8. hornets, wasps, bees. 9. PWC or jet ski .10. Parachutists. 11. Skateboards, ice skates, skis 12. Canoe. 13. Shark 
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Halloween Math: Witches vs Zombies 2

October 16, 2022

 

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Halloween Math : Witches vs Zombies 1

October 16, 2022

There has been a real world Witches Vs Zombie Fight.

The witches of the Haunted House in Salem, Massachusetts, are at war with the Zombies of The Nightmare Factory nearby. A witch tripped a Zombie who was wearing a straight jacket!!!! And … read it for yourself in the Daily Mail, UK.

Links: Top Grossing Horror Movies

Blair Witch Project Budget here.

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Happy Mathsy 2021

January 1, 2021

Mathspig LOVES maths. However, 2020 was a year ruled by MATHS and Mathspig is happy to kiss it goodbye.

Here’s to a HAPPY MATHSY YEAR.

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Have Yourself a Mathsy Little Christmas

December 5, 2019

xmas-mathspig-2016

xmas-surprises

no-1………..no-2…….no-3….no-4….no-5………..

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Maths News: Volcano Survivor 1

May 8, 2018

Kilauea erupts in Hawaii MAY 2018.

The amazing maths of volcano eruptions.

Can you out run a lava flow?

dantes_peak_ver2In every volcano disaster movie from Volcano (1997) with Tommy Lee Jones to Dante’s Peak (1997) with Pierce Brosnan someone somewhere tries to out run a lava flow.

Is this possible? (See movie cliché busted by maths here.)

Now a lava flow from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is threatening tiny town of Pahoa, Hawaii again. (below).

1 Kilauea Volcano USGS

You will find excellent information about the Kilauea and other volcanoes at the

US Geological Survey here.

How to stop lava?

As the temperature of lava exceeds 10000 C there are very few ways to stop lava. According to the Taylor Kate Brown SMH (10 SEPT 2014) options include:

Bombing

Blasting (it with cold water)

Barricading it

Or adding concrete.

What if you are on your own.

Can you out run lava?

Lets do the maths.

Lava from Kilauea travels 17 yards per hour so the lava velocity is:

VL =   17 yds/hour = 15.5 metres /hour

(See Vox.com)

Mathspig simultaneous eqn 1

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Have Yourself a Mathsy Little Christmas

December 13, 2016

xmas-mathspig-2016

xmas-surprises

no-1………….no-2…….no-3….no-4………no-5………..