To celebrate getting into Cambridge to study Maths, I have changed my nickname. I have
also finally got round to paying for this wonderful site. All hail Chris and Russ!
Any challenges are welcome. Just so you know, Incompetent finished on an overrated 1500
or so, but I haven't played for a while, so I don't know how good I am.
By the way, has anyone here studied at Trinity College and/or studied Maths at Cambridge?
What was it like?
Thank you for the nod in my direction Kirk (ya big hero) but then
again maybe not talk to Mark. The exam today did not go well!!
Acolyte,
Take any advice from someone who (despite a glittering academic
record) failed his Finals (and, incidentally, is shaping up rather nicely
to fail his resits) with a handful of salt but let's see...
Not sure whether to post something so blatently off-topic here (even
The Dark Squire's illegal substances question was at least chess
related!).
The Maths you'll do at uni will be like familiarising yourself with Da
Vinci's Last Supper, whereas the Maths you'll have done at A-Level is
more like colouring by numbers. You'll just find it better. Better in the
way that great works of Literature are more interesting than the
dictionary.
Steer clear of Statistics (it just aint Maths). Embrace Calculus, ode's,
pde's. Find out why the world is as it is.
Fall in love with Pure in the way that everyone's favourite Pure Maths
lecturer unashamedly loves his brown cardigan. Number Theory, after
all, is basically sex with prime numbers in modulo p.
Get to know your lecturers, even the ones with brown cardigans,
especially the ones with brown cardigans. These people are some of
the cleverest, sharpest, most insightful people you'll ever have the
honour of meeting.
If you're not already (though to get into Oxbridge I would imagine you
are) start reading about the history of Maths. Find out why
Archimedes, Newton and Gauss are the head honcho's. Find out how
Archimedes died, and why he is revered; how Newton, despite being
born to an abusive, alcoholic father and parents who couldn't read or
write, became the greatest mind of the last 2000 years; and who the
hell Gauss is and why no-one has heard of him despite his
achievements. Find out why Galois died at the age of 21 and why he
mattered. Find out who Monsieur Le Blanc/Sophie Germain is. Don't try
and visualise 5 dimensions, you can't and it'll make your head hurt.
Read about Pythagoras, not about his stupid triangles, but about him
being a cult leader, a murderer and why he was obsessed with the
numbers 6 and 28 (why don't they teach that stuff in school? How
many ears would prick up if they knew they were dealing with cults and
murder?). Learn to love your subject (you prolly do already). It makes
it so much easier.
Whatever you do, don't let anything (or anyone) effect you to such an
extent that you don't do any work. Keep on top of the work.
Do it with Beethoven's 7th accompanying you, do it at 3am when you
can hear nothing but an owl in the distance and daydreams in your
head, do it in the bath (don't write anything inspirational on the
window though...the condensation will disappear and with it all your
ideas), do it in yer head when you go running, do it during the
advertisements of Coronation Street, write formulae out and mail
them to yourself, stick post-it notes on your forehead before going to
sleep so that when you wake up in the morning and stagger to the
bathroom you'll look in the mirror and Maths will be the first thing you
see (I'm sure we've all tried it). Find out what works for you. Just
make sure you keep on top of it. If you're off to Cambridge you are
likely to posess considerable ability, a great, great deal more than I.
It doesn't matter how much though. It only matters how close you can
get to fulfilling it. I didn't. I may still have one Last Chance if they'll
let me retake the year. Don't allow yourself to be introduced to Mr.
Last Chance. The Maths bug, once attained, is hard to get rid of.
Sadly, so are regrets.
Mark
The Maths Lover (the squirrels have taken a back seat today ;o))
PS In case anyone made it through the blithering, a straightforward
number sequence can be your reward. What comes next?
6, 28, ...........? And why was Pythagoras obsessed with the first two
numbers?
Of course, I endorse...
It's been a long time since I've really had time to read the forums
properly. For the last couple of months I've been dipping in and out
and reading bits and bobs - due to all my ducking and diving on the
outside.
But in the last week or so I have been able to spend much more time
here and it's a pleasure to be part of. Some of you may remember
when these forums were not a pleasant place to be....
-Chris
You're scaring me now, the only questions I got asked at interview/STEP were on A-Level
material, albeit far more intimidating than typical A-Level questions; I didn't have to send in
essays like arts applicants usually do.
As for the sequence, I don't know the next one. Perhaps Pythagoras revered them so because
he didn't either. I do recognise those two numbers though, so I won't spoil it for everyone
else by saying what the connection between them is.
If all goes well, I might be making a confession on the artificial assistance thread: Maths
must be one of the most potent intellectual drugs on the market.
Brilliant. Thankyou. That was great to read. I will be sending it to
friends!
I'm afraid my flirtation with maths extends only to the pop arena such
as enjoying Simon Singh's account of the attempts to prove Fermat's
Last Theorem.
But you have reminded me of my other site (for which I once had big
hopes but haven't updated in over two years), a small part of which
nods to my fascination with probability and statistics (sorry!)
Here is one of my favourite math problems... (and I am very much
aware of how pathetic it must seem!) And, yes, reading some of the
things on my old site again does make me cringe...
http://www.chrismo.com/witterings/prob/car_and_goats.php
(If you navigate the site you'll even find a picture of Russ on there...)
-Chrismo
No, thank you Chrismo. Without you and Russ none of us would be
here in the first place.
As for Simon Singh's book on Fermat's Last Theorem (and whole load
of Maths stories besides), it is a great place to start reading about
Maths. He is a terrific storyteller and it really is a wonderful book. Must
have read it about a dozen times.
The car and goat thing (originally it was known as the Monty Hall
problem I believe, after the gameshow in the US) drove me absolutely
crazy for a week. Like you say on that webpage, I too got soooo angry
at a friend of mine when he tried to go through it with me! Its the kind
of thing that just makes one mad!
It caused quite a lot of fuss in the Maths world. A kind of agony aunt
for mathematics wrote (in some magazine or other answering) replies
and solutions to annoying little problems etc. Someone wrote in
asking for an explanation of the car and goats/Monty Hall problem.
She published her answer. The following week the magazine was
overwhelmed with letters from mathematicians, many of whom were
university lecturers and bods with PhDs saying that she was wrong and
that it was non-rigourous mathematicians like her that were causing
such damage to maths in schools (and attacking her quite
personally). She stuck to her guns and published a proof (well,
basically it was just every possibility examined) the following week to
show that she was right, and that it was better to switch doors.
But still the so-called mathematicians disagreed. Such is the counter-
intuitive nature of the problem. There were an awful lot of clever, well-
respected mathematicians left with very red faces at having been
outsmarted by a middle-aged housewife with no mathematical
qualifications.
Anyway, thanks for the reply!
Mark
I first heard it from a student I was supervising whilst she was on a
year-out placement at the company for which I was working at the
time. I was utterly patronising to her trying to explain to her that she
was absolutely and certainly wrong. Luckily another of my colleagues
overheard, and due to the fact that, unlike myself, he was actually
listening to her explanation, he understood, and then explained it to
me! I felt awful!
I later explained it to another colleage (who also studied math at
university, but I forget where). He was also of the 50/50 opinion until
the penny dropped and he explained that the phrase that nailed it for
him was that "the actions of the host are not 100% random". Then I
had another problem working out why that phrase in particular did it
for him!
I'm glad to here it wasn't just me who made a fool of themselves over
this problem!
-Chris