Dadaaadum

The other day in maths I learnt how to integrate by parts and it is brilliant! For a while now I have been coming across so many questions that I couldn't do because I couldn't integrate when there were products and now I can!

It's like in Zelda when you're walking around but you can't get to some places because there are rocks in the way and you can't lift them yet. Then you find/win/buy a power bracelet and then you can get past the rocks and for a while you discover all these new places and find loads of rupees and you can finally afford the bow and arrow you have been saving up for for ages and its really great!

Learning to integrate by part is the real life equivalent to Zelda so even though I don't get to buy a bow and arrow it still feels pretty great.

Maths Spy

When I was a kid I wanted to be a spy. Spys made the best movies and they absolutely made the best games. I'm not ashamed to say that I was the kid who ran around the playground talking into my watch and carried 'lazer lipstick' in my pencil case! And now my dreams are about to come true! It's all to do with maths! You basically have to a crack a code similar to this one and build a virtual computer - easy right? I'll just do it next time I have a spare 10 hours... Oh wait, maybe I should study for my maths test, you know just as a back up in case the spy life doesn't work out for me....

This is the article I read from the telegraph

Math Mug

I had my penultimate further maths lesson ever today! It's quite sad because I have really enjoyed these lessons but then again it will be quite nice to have a little bit more time! We're doing mechanics at the moment which is basically physics. My teacher gave us each one of these further maths mugs! They are so cute and the maths jokes are hilarious! You've got to love inside jokes!

Maths Fail Number One....

Yesterday I went to a maths competition run by the further maths network. It was the regional round (which sounds very grand but there have been no previous rounds!) and my teacher had to drive us to a school in Billericay which again meant missing two physics lessons and using the GPS on my new phone to get us there!

It was a team challenge of two year 13's and two year 12's. In the first round we had to share 10 problems between the 4 of us and we had 40 minutes but they were so long and complicated we barely got anything resembling an answer for them all! The second round was a mathematical crossword which was really fun and a little less stressed. We scored quite well in that but it wasn't enough to make up for the monstrosities that occurred in the 3rd relay round! I still cringe when I remember expanding every factorial and ending up with a humongous answer rather than just simplifying in the first place.... Anyway in the end we came 14th out of 19 schools which isn't completely awful I suppose but top 10 would at least have meant we could proudly return to school... We had a teacher supervising us from another school and he said we were lovely so that made it slightly better! I'd rather be stupid and lovely than stupid and not lovely... I did genuinely enjoy the challenge and the cheese, gammon and pickle sandwich so it wasn't a complete waste!

Day Two

The problem with doing amazing Physics things all week is that I spend so much time doing amazing Physics things I have no time to write about it all!

Mobius Loop

Yesterday at the academy was pretty cool. We had a Maths session all morning but it was nothing like I expected the Maths to be! We tried out a few flexagons and explored some of the incredible characteristics of the mobius loop and they were amazing! The lecturer was very good and I really enjoyed myself! I just have to show everyone the mobius loop tricks!


In the afternoon we went into our research groups and although I got my first choice alot of people in my group didn't, the neutrino research was very popular! We picked out a neutrino each and since they were all labelled with three initials I chose the one called LOV. My friend chose GOO, a girl in my team chose SOS and my new friend (I'm actually talking to people!) chose BSV which sounded boring but then he showed me the structure and then I realised he had chosen the most awesome one in the most sensible way! However my choice did mean that whenever I had to explain a problem to anyone I got to say 'I have no idea what is happening, but I am in LOV(E)'!

We didn't get very far and I was still struggling with using Linex yesterday. It was so strange to use a command interface and took some serious adjustment. I am still not very good at it but yesterday I was still feeling quite useless and a little helpless but still keeping positive for the sake of the team of course.

Frustrated! Help please?

So today I sat an exam for one of my maths modules and I think it went well except for one question. One question that nobody I have spoken to could do and even now with google at hand I still cannot do! I assumed there must be some kind of theorem for this but if there is I can't find it. I usually laugh at people who use the student room after an exam because it doesn't help anyone - the exam is over. But I decided that the frustration of not knowing the answer was bigger than the frustration of knowing I could have known the answer this time! But I still can't find the answer!?

I know nobody reads this but it would be amazing if anybody could find the answer? I'm just about to email my teacher so you can race her!

So the radius of the sector was 6cm and the angle was in radians. We had to find the radius of the circle. I tried everything I can think of including drawing out a rough sketch of a complete circle with this pattern repeated 6 times, trying to use congruent triangles and drawing in a new diameter from the centre of the sector downwards... Is it to do with tangents? Or a theorem? Help?

Amazing Website

I found this website on someone elses blog but I'm still allowed to talk about it if I link them right?

So this is the most amazing website! They have literally listed every number from 0-9999 and said what is special about each. As someone who as a child in moments of boredom attempted to write out as many numbers as possible I realise how much time this list must have taken (I never got so far as 9999!). I'm pretty sure Pythagoras would have been extremely proud!

So I haven't explored this page nearly enough (I think it would take years!) but so far I have already learnt what a Kaprekar number is. It is when you square a number and split the result into two numbers, add them and you get your original number - for example:

9 sqaured = 81                             8 + 1 = 9

9999 sqaured = 999800001        9998 + 00001 = 9999

Pretty cool right?!