/podcasts/wbu10.mp3

This month, @reflectivemaths (Dave Gale in real life) and I discuss:

  • The birth of baby Bill (d’aww)
  • Dave’s loyalty to More or Less, and nappies
  • WBU ultra-loyalist [twit handle = “srcav”]’s comments on Episode 9 and a plea for reviews
  • Whether to up our podcasting output in an attempt to outdo Math/Maths and TES Maths
  • Congratulations to [twit handle = “peterrowlett”] on his (provisional) doctorate [UPDATE: Peter, dammit, is a doctor, not a mathematician; his Ph.D. is in Computing and Maths Education.]
  • Dave’s Christmas present: [twit handle = “slsingh”]’s The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, and Colin’s: Two Girls, One On Each Knee by [twit handle = “alanconnor”]
  • The numerology of the calendar, 11/12/[20]13 and [twit handle = “andrew_taylor”]’s brilliant [twit handle = “823years”] account
  • [twit handle = “perspective_pick”]’s run-in with the Maths Police and other things that have got our goat
  • The Nix The Tricks ebook (review here)
  • Vedic Mathematics, which doesn’t get a link because it’s dreadful
  • Dave’s plans for a book of puzzles and whether there’s anything new under the sum
  • World record attempts involved cards, dates, coin towers and chess sets (Colin’s attempt here)
  • Colin’s alternative quadratic method, revisited - explained more clearly here.
  • Colin’s geometry puzzle: inscribe a square inside a circle of radius $r$; inscribe a square inside a semicircle of radius $r$; what’s the ratio of their areas?
  • Colin doesn’t understand calculus of variations and hopes it will make him better at Real Racing

* Updated 7/1/2014 to clarify Peter’s qualification.