Search focused Mathematics content

11+ hour, 16+ min ago (334+ words) The competition which run in collaboration with Mzuzu University's department of Mathematics and Statics is expected to fully roll out in January with registration planned for December. Speaking at the sponsorship handover ceremony in Mzuzu, Old Mutual Life Assurance Company Managing Director Mark Mikwamba said the competition remains "one of the most inspiring platforms in the company's calendar because it allows it to directly witness the brilliance, dedication, and ambition of Malawi's young minds. Mikwamba said, "In 2024/2025 edition, we saw 237 students out of which, 113 girls and 124 boys, averaging 17 years of age participating from across the country. We are particularly encouraged by the growing participation of girls, evidenced by the fact that the highest score in Test 1 last year was achieved by a female student, with another female among the top two performers overall. "Out of 122 schools, 48 were Community Day Secondary…...

13+ hour, 3+ min ago (376+ words) This post is a side quest in the series on navigating by the stars. It expands on a footnote in the previous post. There are six pieces of information associated with a spherical triangle: three sides and three angles. I said in the previous post that given three out of these six quantities you could solve for the other three. Then I dropped a footnote saying sometimes the missing quantities are uniquely determined but sometimes there are two solutions and you need more data to uniquely determine a solution. Todhunter's textbook on spherical trig gives a thorough account of how to solve spherical triangles under all possible cases. The first edition of the book came out in 1859. A group of volunteers typeset the book in TeX. Project Gutenberg hosts the PDF version of the book and the TeX source. I…...

15+ hour, 11+ min ago (534+ words) The previous post introduced the idea of finding your location by sighting a star. There is some point on Earth that is directly underneath the star at any point in time, and that location is called the star's GP (geographic position). That is one vertex of the navigational triangle. The other two vertices are your position and the North Pole. Unless you're at Santa's workshop and observing a star nearly directly overhead, the navigational triangle is a big triangle, so big that you need to use spherical geometry rather than plane geometry. We will assume the Earth is a sphere [1]. Let'a be the side running from your position to the GP. In the terminology of the previous post'a is the radius of the line of position (LOP). Let'b be the side running from the GP to the North Pole. This…...

19+ hour, 13+ min ago (274+ words) The previous post touched on how Lewis and Clark recorded celestial observations so that the data could be turned into coordinates after they returned from their expedition. I intend to write a series of posts about celestial navigation, and this post will discuss one fundamental topic: line of position (LOP). Pick a star that you can observe [1]. At any particular time, there is exactly one point on the Earth's surface directly under the star, the point where a line between the center of the Earth and the star crosses the Earth's surface. This point is called the geographical position (GP) of the star. The LOP is a "small circle" in a technical sense. A great circle is the intersection of the Earth's surface with a plane through the Earth's center, like a line of longitude. A small circle is the…...

1+ day, 1+ hour ago (294+ words) Press release issued: 4 December 2025 Bristol is one of seven top UK universities to receive a share of "26.37 million as part of the Early Career Research Funding programme, which will create 100 new early career research positions between 2026 and 2028. Recruitment has already begun for the first cohort of new researchers to start at Bristol in September 2026, with a total of 12 PhDs and 3 post-doctoral positions planned over the next three years. Plans are also underway for a number of career enhancement activities and professional development for PhDs and early career researchers. Vice Chancellor Professor Evelyn Welch said: "Pure mathematics is a wonderful, engaging subject and we do it brilliantly here at the University of Bristol. "I am excited that we will be able to bring in fully-funded PhD students who will join a globally connected community of outstanding researchers and educators. "The funding…...

1+ day, 8+ hour ago (181+ words) A new study links Ramanujan's pi formulae with modern physics. IISc researchers uncovered deep ties between century-old math and theory. The discovery shows how classical ideas shape today's scientific questions. Their work explains why Ramanujan's expressions calculate pi so efficiently. A Century-Old Puzzle Revisited Ramanujan created rapid pi formulae in early twentieth-century mathematics. These formulae stunned experts with exceptional speed and compact structure. Scientists later questioned why such elegant patterns actually existed. The new study uncovers reasons behind these remarkable mathematical identities. Patterns Hidden in Plain Sight When Physics Meets Mathematics Where the Universe Repeats Itself?" Such theories appear in turbulence and unusual percolation processes. They also influence black hole boundary models under extreme conditions. These systems follow scale symmetry where patterns recur consistently. Ramanujan captured these mathematical symmetries long before physics recognised them. The Clue Behind the Equations Why…...

1+ day, 15+ hour ago (329+ words) A mathematician who has helped transform our understanding of population genetics, one of the most eminent chemical engineers in China, and leading international innovators in biotechnology and retail marketing have been awarded Honorary Degrees from Heriot-Watt University as part of its 2025 winter graduation programme. Alison Etheridge and Martin Mackay both received the honorary title, Doctor of Science. Doctor of Engineering was conferred on Jinghai Li and Doctor of the University on Tom Hendren during ceremonies at the University's Edinburgh campus. "Their remarkable achievements demonstrate how deep expertise and creative thinking can change industries and improve lives around the world." Dame Alison Etheridge is Professor of Probability at the University of Oxford, where she holds a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics. Over the course of her career, her research interests have ranged from abstract mathematical problems to…...

1+ day, 19+ hour ago (489+ words) The graph of y = 2x2 + bx + c is shown, where b and c are constants. What is the value of bc? In 2008, Zinah earned 14% more than in 2007, and in 2009 Zinah earned 4% more than in 2008. If Zinah earned y times as much in 2009 as in 2007, what is'the value of y ? Circle A (shown) is defined by the equation (x + 2)2 + y2 = 9 Circle B (not shown) is the result'of shifting circle A down 6 units and increasing the'radius so that the radius of circle B is 2 times the'radius of circle A. Which equation defines circle B ? A)(x + 2)2 + (y + 6)2 = (4)(9) B)' 2(x + 2)2 + 2(y + 6)2 = 9 C)(x + 2)2 + (y -'6)2 = (4)(9) D)' 2(x + 2)2 + 2(y -'6)2 = 9 Right triangle ABC is shown. What is the value of tan A? In the equation above, what is the value of x? The relationship between two variables, x and y, is'linear. For every increase in the value of x by 1, the'value of y…...

2+ day, 5+ hour ago (487+ words) You can adapt the curriculum you have to create rich tasks that invite reasoning and build students" problem-solving skills. I know that teachers play the most significant role in any learning situation, and studies have shown that investing in teacher learning is more important than investing in new curriculum, books'or anything else. I also know that the best learning outcomes happen when teachers have autonomy to choose tasks, adapt tasks, and bring in new tasks. But what should you be looking for when choosing tasks? And how do you adapt tasks to meet the interests and needs of the students in your class? So many math teachers are told to use textbooks that are filled with short, narrow questions that don"t interest students or create opportunities for deep or critical thinking. I started my career as a math teacher…...

2+ day, 6+ hour ago (941+ words) The Chief Examiner's Report has outlined various reasons why candidates performed poorly in three of the four core subjects in this year's West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates (SC). The reasons are contained in a summary of the weaknesses of candidates in the 2025 WASSCE-SC (Ghana Only Version)." "The Chief Examiner for Mathematics (Core) reported that there was a decline in performance compared to that of the previous year," it said. Regarding candidates' strengths, the report said they were evident in the application of the midpoint concept to solve problems, solving problems on mensuration, solving simple problems on average speed and finding the distance of a line when given two points. On Social Studies " the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence " the Chief Examiner indicated that candidates could not point out…...