Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 19h

So weird. These are shapes humans have found it convenient to arrange food into, nothing more.

I remember years ago a friend of mine being outraged by the idea that veggie substitutes use the terms ‘burger’ and ‘sausage’. I asked him which bit of the animal is its ‘sausage’.

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 21h

He’d made this map of seven regions where the two that are brown here are discontiguous parts of the same country, as are the blues. This isn’t covered by the FCT, but still - what a thing for a 10 year old to come up with!

2/2 #tmwyk

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 21h

When I woke, my son greeted me with a proposed counterexample to the Four Colour Theorem. He said he’d woken with the idea.

1/2 #tmwyk

A big outer green region. Inside this effectively a line of squares: brown, blue, then one that’s vertically separated half grey, half dark green, then brown, then blue.

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 1d

Please will you email me on [email protected] ? A note about what topics and level you’d be interested in reviewing would be useful. Thanks!

Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 1d

The call for peer reviewers is very real - if you teach maths at the upper end of school through to early university and are interested in maths content useful to people like you, please get in touch via [email protected] - thanks!

#MathsToday #UKMathsChat #ALevelMaths #MathToday #MathSky

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 1d

Came home to find the MA’s Mathematical Angles, which includes a spread about me taking over as editor of The Mathematical Gazette.

Two pages including an announcement about me being the next editor of The Mathematical Gazette and a call for peer reviewers.

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 15d

Tomorrow at 12 UK time is the latest Finite Group livestream - Katie @steckl.es and Hana Ayoob on maths of colour. I will be teaching, but there will be a recording available afterwards. Join to take part or watch later: finitegroup.co.uk

25th September, 12-1pm BST
Maths of Colour Katie Steckles & Hana Ayoob

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 17d

Lovely day for it.

University buildings, trees and blue sky.

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 17d

Today is the first day of teaching. I am teaching problem solving, pure maths, and proof to our first year mathematicians, and some neural network theory to computing master’s students. Plus helping maths project students consider their options for dissertation topic. It’s all go!

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 21d

Just found out Academia edu has taken it upon itself to copy one of my open access papers to its site and then used "our AI" to generate a podcast based on the paper. They've added this to settings and it was on by default, which is extremely yuck.

Also "AI-generated reviews"? Of my papers? Why?

AI-enhanced Outputs

Control how AI uses your research across Academia.edu.
AI-enhanced outputs: Disabled

AI Features are disabled for your account.

Your uploaded works are not eligible for:

AI-generated reviews
AI-generated podcasts
AI-generated key takeaways
AI-generated abstracts
AI-generated FAQs

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 23d

My first time at the INI and it was very pleasing to give a talk in the room where Andrew Wiles announced his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 23d

Had a lovely time yesterday at the Induction Course for New Lecturers in the Mathematical Sciences at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge. I spoke about what we are aiming to do when we teach university mathematics and the different kinds of mathematical thinking we might develop.

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 24d

MathsJam is here!

MathsJam @mathsjam.bsky.social · 24d

MathsJam is a monthly opportunity for like-minded self-confessed maths enthusiasts to get together in a pub and share stuff they like. Puzzles, games, problems, or just anything they think is cool or interesting. See how to join in at mathsjam.com!

MathsJam

mathsjam.com

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 27d

“Reading from left to right. And then addition and subtraction, again in either order.”

I think he’s got it. I explained how multiplication & division are the same thing, and addition & subtraction. He seemed fine with it.

We told him lots of people struggle with this. “Why? It’s easy!”

#tmwyk

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 27d

Today my son (10) had his first lesson on what he called “BODMAS”.

Me: “What’s that?”
Him: “Brackets. Order. Division. Multiplication. Except you can do those two in either order as you go through.”
“What do you mean ‘go through’?”
#tmwyk

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Reposted by Peter Rowlett

Tommaths (he/him) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @teakayb.mathsy.space · Sep 9

Breaking: Leeds @waterstones has a copy of The Mathematicians' Library!

I'm in Leeds for a couple of days: buy it and I'll sign it for you if we can arrange to be in the same place at the same time.

A copy of The Mathematicians' Library nestles amongst others on the Popular Science shelves in Milton Keynes Waterstones!

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · Sep 7

I spotted a pic of the wrong George Green being used and speculated FindAGrave might be the original source of the error. I reported it to them & wrote an article.

FindAGrave moved slower than the speed of academic publishing but have now corrected the error! Here www.findagrave.com/memorial/208...

A photograph of George Green? A case study in historical misconception

George Green (1793–1841) was a miller and mathematician from Nottingham who developed revolutionary theories in mathematical physics. It is possible to find online a photograph of Green. No such pi...

www.tandfonline.com

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · Sep 2

From time to time I see a picture purporting to be of George Green, the Nottingham mathematician. There is no such picture, so how did this come about?

Get free access (temporary) to an article I wrote about this historical misconception. Also see how I worked in a Terry Pratchett citation!

A photograph of George Green? A case study in historical misconception

George Green (1793–1841) was a miller and mathematician from Nottingham who developed revolutionary theories in mathematical physics. It is possible to find online a photograph of Green. No such pi...

www.tandfonline.com

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Reposted by Peter Rowlett

Dr. Martin Skrodzki @msmathcomp.bsky.social · Aug 14

I can highly recommend the #pod. Cool and insightful conversations and great content overall, featuring @steckl.es and @peterrowlett.net among others.

Talking Maths in Public @tmip.bsky.social · Aug 14

Did you know TMiP has a podcast, in which maths communicators share ideas, thoughts and stories about how to communicate maths well? All six episodes of our first series are online at https://tmip.uk/podcast

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Reposted by Peter Rowlett

Katie Steckles @steckl.es · Aug 10

Do you like interesting maths people and/or hanging out with them? Join the Finite Group for access to our Discord community, and paid members can also watch monthly livestreams (and recordings of them) where we chat about maths, sometimes bringing in special guests! More info at finitegroup.co.uk

Finite Group

Finite Group is a collective of cool maths people who want to have nice conversations about mathematical ideas.

finitegroup.co.uk

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · Aug 1

I wrote about Mary Everest Boole’s curve stitching, string art, and Bézier curves in this weekend’s New Scientist.

Mathematics of life
A creative curve
What have holey cards and a ball of string got to do with geometry? Let's make "string art" and find out, says Peter Rowlett
When she was young, Mary Everest Boole found some cards with evenly spaced holes around the edges. She laced a thread from each hole to the one opposite, covering the card with lines that crossed in the middle. When she tried connecting each hole to one not exactly opposite, she was delighted to find the threads left a symmetric curve in the middle of the card. She felt this activity gave her an intuition that helped her learn formal geometry.
Years later, in 1864, she was widowed with five children.Even though the academic system didn't value the contributions of women, she worked as a librarian and maths tutor in London.

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · Jul 23

I had a lovely morning in a local primary school doing some pi approximations so the kids can take part in Moon Pi. Recommended!

Teacher sign up info is here:

Moon Pi: we're going to calculate pi on the Moon

Matt Parker is going to calculate pi on the moon. But he needs your help. Join the Kickstarter to become a Mathstronaut and have your name sent to the Moon (and potentially receive your own value of L...

pi.space

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · Jul 23

I realised it’s ten years to the day since I submitted my first journal peer review! In that time I’ve done 85 reviews for 19 journals.

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · Jul 22

Today I am delivering my one hundredth schools workshop/talk. 🎉

Before today I’ve delivered 98 sessions at 55 events (32 of which were school visits), almost all since 2022.
peterrowlett.net/communicatio...

Today’s 33rd school visit includes three workshops and a talk.

Maths communication | peterrowlett.net

peterrowlett.net

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Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · Jul 9

Big news!

The Mathematical Association @mathematicala.bsky.social · Jul 9

We are pleased to announce that Dr @peterrowlett.net will be the next Editor of The Mathematical Gazette, taking over from Dr Gerry Leversha.

Read more here: buff.ly/KttDt7E

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