MATHS WEEK:MORE THAN 25 volunteers participated at the launch of Maths Week, which kicked off on Grafton Street at the weekend. During the launch, passersby and shoppers were asked to take part in a series of puzzles and games.
The volunteers, a mixture of international students and lecturers, quizzed shoppers on their maths knowledge. They were joined by “mathemagician” Andrew Jeffrey, who aimed to show younger participants that maths could be fun.
Maths Week runs until Sunday 21st and involves over 100 events across the island, according to co-ordinator Eoin Gill.
“Maths Week is all about promoting a positive image of maths. We want people of all ages to enjoy maths and build their maths confidence. Many people think of maths as doing sums in school, but in fact maths is all around us and we all use some amount of maths everyday,” he said.
“While mathematics is important to the economy of Ireland, it is also crucial in the everyday life of all citizens. All too often I hear people say, ‘I can’t do maths’ and this leads to the mistaken belief that you have to be hardwired for maths.
“Of course, not everyone will become a top mathematician, but everyone can learn to enjoy maths if we can break that ‘cycle of fear’ associated with the subject.”
The annual event aims to convince people that maths is not intimidating, but can be enjoyable. It also aims to illustrate that at present, maths graduates are in huge demand, with two-thirds of graduates finding employment immediately after leaving university.
Throughout the country there will be mathematical talks and presentations for people of all ages and maths skills. So far, more than 110,000 people have registered to take part in events, making it the biggest maths event in the world.
There will be a broad range of talks on subjects such as the mathematics behind sports such as rugby, athletics, football and tennis; the maths in Obama’s mobile phone; and climate change and diagnosing cancer – how maths rules everything.
Ireland’s seven universities, most ITs in the south and two northern universities will also host activities during the week.
More information can be found at mathsweek.ie.
MATHS WEEK PUZZLE:
The Irish Times has traditionally been considered the “paper of record”. This can even be constructed mathematically in a cryptarithm:
IRISH
+TIMES
= RECORD
A cryptarithm is a puzzle where the digits in a piece of arithmetic (usually a sum) are replaced by letters. Each letter represents a distinct digit and the numbers cannot begin with a zero. The puzzle is to figure what numbers the letters stand for. Cryptarithms can take a lot of time and patience. They are usually solved by applying some logic and a lot of trial and error. To reduce the time demand I can tell you that I, S = 8, 5.
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ANSWER...
I=8, R=1, S=5, H=4, T=7, M=3, E = 6, C=0,
O=2, D= 9
See www.mathsweek.ie/irishtimes for the solution and details of how to solve the puzzle.