100 pages of Maths Displays and

Posters
Hopefully you will find the resources below useful for making some really inspiring posters for students. In the 2 word documents there are over 100 pages
of content to make maths displays and posters for your schools. A lot of this content is from various sources online which I’ve amended to fit a poster
format. In particular the resources from London Maths and Day Today were really useful. If you would like some more content to enrich lessons and cater
for gifted and talented students, please check out the site www.ibmathsresources.com - I’ve been working on this over the past couple of years. There are
now over 200 pages of content – maths dingbats, maths exploration ideas, code breaking challenges and loads more. All completely free – hope you find
this useful as well.

Some highlights

• http://ibmathsresources.com/code-challenge/- students from over 50 schools worldwide have currently taken part in this code challenge. Crack
codes to reveal passwords needed to access the next page. Students who complete all codes make the leaderboard wall of fame.
• http://ibmathsresources.com/maths-ia-maths-exploration-topics/ - about 150 maths exploration ideas, targeted at gifted and talented KS3, KS4 and
sixth form. Everything from the Knight’s Tour to Poincare’s Conjecture, to why England always lose on penalties, to making music with sine waves
to the maths behind a zombie apocalypse.
• http://ibmathsresources.com/mathsdingbats/ - about 50 original maths dingbats to use as starters or as part of quizzes. Try this one below!

Thanks

Andrew
 10 Mathematical
Equations That
Changed the Face of
the World
 E = Mc 2

This is probably the most famous equation in the world. It was

discovered by Albert Einstein in 1915
One of Einstein's great insights was to realize that matter and energy
are really different forms of the same thing. Matter can be turned into
energy, and energy into matter. In this equation E stands for energy, M
stands for matter, c stands for the speed of light.
So what does this all mean? Because the speed of light is so big
(300,000 kilometres per second) it means that everything – from big
things like tables and chairs to very small things like atoms have a
massive amount of energy inside them. This is the basis of nuclear
power and nuclear bombs – if you can split the atoms you can release
enormous amounts of energy.
a +b =c
2 2 2
This is called Pythagoras theorem – it was discovered by the
mathematician Pythagoras in around 500 BC. The formula links
the lengths on a triangle. c is the length of the hypotenuse, a and
b are the lengths of the other two sides.
It is the basis of a lot of construction and architecture – as it
allows people to work out the height of objects or the length of
slopes.
1-1 = 0
This looks pretty simple – but the concept of using a number to express
“nothing” actually took some time to come about. Many early
mathematicians used forms of writing numbers (like Roman numerals)
which did not contain any zeroes. As a result simple calculations like
addition and multiplication were much more difficult.

The concept of zero as a number and not merely a symbol for

separation is attributed to India from about the 9th century AD.
A = πr
2
This formula can be used to find the area of a circle. π = 3.14 (2 dp).
This formula is essential for all sorts of geometry and design, and π is possibly
the most important number in the world. π appears in a huge number of
mathematical formula that describe the universe around us.

The first theoretical calculation of a value of pi was that of Archimedes of

Syracuse who lived about 2200 years ago. He was one of the most brilliant
mathematicians of the ancient world. He worked out an approximation for π
and then demonstrated how this number could be used to work out the area
of circles.
F = ma
This is one of Sir Isaac Newton’s most famous equations. They were
published by Newton in England in 1687. It means that the force of an object
is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration. Newton’s laws have formed
the basis of how we understand the world around us. Without Newton there
would be no engineering, no space travel, and no physics! Newton placed
maths at the heart of science.
1+ e = 0
iπ
This is possibly the most remarkable equation ever discovered – indeed
it has been voted the most beautiful equation in mathematics. Called
Euler’s Identity after the Swiss mathematician who discovered it, it
manages to link 5 of the fundamental constants in mathematics into
one formula:
• The number 0 – the additive identity
• The number 1 – the multiplicative identity
• The number π – which is fundamental in trigonometry and
geometry
• The number e – which is fundamental to scientific analysis
• The number i – which is the imaginary unit of complex number (i2 =
-1 )
 −𝑏 ± √𝑏 ! − 4𝑎𝑐
𝑥=
2𝑎
This is the quadratic equation which gives solutions to the equation:
ax2 + bx + c = 0
It was first published in this form by Ren Descartes in 1637 – who has been described
as the father of modern mathematics and philosophy. Why is it so useful? Well, it
allows you to solve any equation with a squared term in it. This means that algebra
can be used to model numerous real life situations – from population growth to
company break even points.
 iѳ
e = cosѳ + isinѳ
Euler's formula, has been described as, "one of the most
remarkable, almost astounding, formulas in all of mathematics."
It is named after Leonhard Euler, and shows the relationship
between the trigonometric functions, the exponential function
and imaginary numbers . It is closely linked to Euler’s Identity.
 SOHCAHTOA
!""!#$%& ,-.,/&)%
sin 𝑥 = cos 𝑥 =
'("!%&)*#& '("!%&)*#&
!""!#$%&
tan 𝑥 =
,-.,/&)%
The basic trigonometry formulae allow you to find angles or sides
in a right angled triangle. By the 16th Century, when ships
navigated round the world using hand drawn maps, trigonometry
was one of the most important areas of mathematics. It allowed
sailors, map-makers and architects to accurately calculate angles
and distances – heralding a new era of accuracy.
 !"! ""
𝐹= "
#
This is possibly the most important formula in the universe. If
you have two objects of mass m 1 and m 2 at a distance d, then
these two objects will attract each other with a force F given in
this formula. G is the gravitational constant.

This formula determines the destiny of our Universe - i.e.

whether it will expand forever or whether it will ultimately
collapse in a Big Crunch.
Monkeys move virtual limbs using brainwaves
A new brain implant has allowed monkeys to move virtual arms and to feel physical sensations from objects inside a
computer. It's a major step towards fully functioning artificial limbs.
Will humans one day be able to move objects around using He hopes to be able to demonstrate such devices at the
the power of thought alone? It sounds like science fiction, but Football World Cup in three years time.
researchers at Duke University in the USA have taken an
important step towards turning that vision into science fact. The immediate uses of bionic technology are medical –
In a newly published experiment, Dr Miguel Nicolelis and his restoring movement to amputees or quadriplegics. In the long
team show that owl monkeys with special brain implants can term, however, things needn't necessarily end there. Nicolelis
successfully control virtual limbs on a computer. Even more noted that driving a virtual limb didn't seem to interfere with
exciting, these limbs can 'feel' the texture of objects within the the monkeys' use of their other limbs – instead, they
virtual space, transmitting sensations back to the monkey incorporated the virtual limb as if it were a newly grown extra.
pilots by stimulating their brain cells with electric currents. Cyborg future
This is a big step. Virtual limbs which can both send and This raises an interesting possibility. What if, in the far future,
receive information (like sensations, for example) could feel, bionic limbs were not just replacements but upgrades? An
to the user, almost as natural as the real thing. extra robot arm might turn out to be pretty useful. What about
And these mind-controlled limbs don't have to stay virtual. In mechanically reinforced legs that would allow us to run at 60
another huge recent breakthrough, a man who was paralysed miles per hour or jump over buildings?
from the neck down managed to use brain implants to move a For some, this will be the stuff of fantasy. As one online
real robot arm. 'Tears were flowing,' he said, describing how commenter opined, replacing our 'weak flesh' with
he awkwardly reached out for the first time to take his 'unstoppable cyborg robo-bodies' would be 'just awesome'.
girlfriend's hand. 'Can I get mine with missiles?' added another.
Combining this sort of robot prosthetic with Dr Nicolelis' two- For others, this fantasy looks like a nightmare. The body is a
way implants could lead to a tipping point in bionic technology temple, people sometimes say, and if so, brain implants and
– a moment when the sophistication and power of both robot limbs must be sacrilege – an attack on human nature
implants and artificial limbs radically increases. The doctor's itself.
next ambition is to get paralysed teenagers using his
technology to drive full-scale robotic exoskeletons.
World’s most powerful telescope turns to the stars
The Alma sub-millimetre array, a huge telescope made of dishes spread over
miles of Andean desert, has captured its first extraordinary images, shedding
new light on the birth of stars.

Five thousand metres above sea level, on the desert Images from ordinary telescopes, using the visible light
wasteland of Chile's Chajnantor Plateau, the world's most spectrum, show the Antennae galaxies surrounded by swirling
powerful astronomical instrument has swung into action. An black clouds of dust. If you look at the galaxies in the sub-
array of 22 huge reflective dishes, representing the cutting millimetre wavelengths, however, these dark clouds can be
edge of telescope technology, turns ponderously through the seen giving off a mysterious glow, like a message written in
thin, freezing mountain air, probing the secrets of the most invisible ink that suddenly emerges when you see it under UV
distant stars. light.
Their first target: a pair of galaxies called the 'Antennae', 13.5 What does the glow mean? It is the faint dim light given off by
billion light years distant. The few faint photons being focused the birth of a new generation of stars – stars that may, by
in the Alma dishes are the product of an ancient galactic now, be stable life-giving suns, similar to our own.
collision, which took place a mere 500 million years after the Creation and destruction
universe was born but is only now becoming visible on Earth.
The Alma array means that, for the first time, we can actually
The Antennae galaxies – each containing billions of raging, see this stellar creation happening. It is not, however, a new
primitive stars – got caught in each other's gravity wells, discovery. Scientists had already deduced that stars were
spiralling together in a slow motion dance of death. being born within the galactic gas clouds, and some will say
This apocalyptic moment can be seen with existing telescopes that although the pictures are pretty, they do little to advance
– but the snapshots that conventional machines take are the frontiers of human knowledge.
missing something crucial. Like a letter in a spy movie, the But to actually see such a monumental moment of creation
Antennae galaxies conceal a secret, visible only to those who and destruction taking place has a beauty and importance all
can read between the lines. of its own, others will reply. The Alma telescope gives us a
This is where the Alma array comes in. Most telescopes can new opportunity to marvel at the grandeur, the scale and the
'see' only certain wavelengths of radiation: the relatively short terrifying power of the universe.
lengths we call the 'visible light spectrum'.

Internet to become ‘global brain’, says billionaire

When Yuri Milner invested $200m dollars in Facebook people said he was crazy. Since then he
has got it right again and again. Now he has made his boldest prediction of all.

In the next ten years the world will develop a 'global brain' 5. The largest newspaper in the USA is only reaching one per
consisting of all of humanity connected to each other and cent of the population while the Internet is used by 25% of the
interacting, creating an intelligence that does not belong to population every day.
any single human or computer but which is spread out all over 6. Major Internet businesses produce revenues of $1 million
our planet and living its own life. per employee compared to traditional businesses, which only
This prediction has just been made not by a science fiction produce 10% to 20% as much.
writer or even by a mad research scientist but by a hard- 7. Artificial intelligence is a growing part of our daily lives. We
headed Russian businessman called Yuri Milner. all know examples like Amazon's recommendation of books
He bases his optimism on what he claims are seven key facts. based on ones we have read and Google's constantly
1. The internet revolution is the fastest economic change that improving search algorithms.
humans have ever experienced and it is accelerating. Two What next?
billion people are online today and in ten years it will be more Milner predicts that in the future every human will be plugged
than four billion. into a global network of machines and artificial intelligence.
2. The internet is about connecting machines. Five billion We will be just as individual as ever but we will also be part of
machines are connected today. In ten years there will be a greater whole. Twenty per cent of the world's energy will be
more than 20 billion. devoted to running this 'global brain' – which happens to be
3. More information is being created than ever before. Last the same percentage of human energy that runs the human
year we created as much information every 48 hours as was brain.
created between the dawn of time and 2003. (In ten years it Sceptics argue his prediction goes too far. The explosion of
will be every hour). the web will hit a wall, just like other trends. People are
4. People are sharing more often. During 2006 we sent 50 already getting fed up with being 'linked' all the time and value
billion emails. Last year: 300 billion. direct human interaction more than digital communication.

The antimatter mystery and the ‘Big Bang’

Scientists in a US laboratory have created the world's heaviest particles of antimatter. It's a
step towards understanding one of the deepest mysteries of the universe.
Amid the debris of a lightspeed collision, in a brilliant flash of That's hundreds of thousands of times hotter than the centre
energy, the anti-atom flickered into existence. For billionths of of the sun.
a second it hurled itself through the vacuum before colliding
with the walls of the experimental chamber. The last time such temperatures occurred naturally was in the
There was a tiny explosion. Then, the anti-atom vanished instant immediately after the 'Big Bang' – the birth of our
without trace. The only evidence of its passing was a flare of universe. As space and time exploded into being, intense
radiation, dispersing quickly into the void. waves of energy condensed into matter and antimatter. The
matter that was created in that moment went on to form the
But even with such a short lifetime, the anti-atom has caused galaxies and stars we see in the skies today.
a stir among scientists. This week they published their
findings: with two anti-protons and two anti-neutrons, it was By re-enacting the beginning of the universe, scientists hope
the heaviest particle of antimatter ever artificially produced. to understand one of the greatest mysteries of modern
physics: what happened to the antimatter? Standard physical
How did they do it? The secret lies in the deep laws of laws predict that matter and antimatter should have been
physics, which say that matter and energy are fundamentally produced in the same amounts. If that's the case, there would
equivalent. Release enough energy in a small space, and have been enough antimatter to cancel out all the matter in
matter will emerge from nothing. the universe in an instant.
But whenever matter is created, so is antimatter. It's like And yet here we are; and as we look into the stars, there's no
punching circles from an endless sheet of paper. For each antimatter in sight.
circle you get, you also get a hole. When antimatter meets
matter, it's like putting the circle back into the hole – both Universal questions
disappear, and you're left with nothing. The two opposed So what happened? Was more matter produced than
particles vanish, in a process called annihilation. antimatter – breaking the laws of physics as we know them?
Was the antimatter somehow separated from the matter? Are
Scientists made antimatter by releasing lots of energy in a there whole antimatter galaxies drifting far beyond the limits
small space. Using a powerful machine they heated atoms to of visible space.
temperatures of trillions of degrees Celsius.
Listening out for Alien Life
Astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, have trained the world's largest steerable radio telescope on 86 Earth-like
planets. The data collected by the telescope will later be analsyed by an estimated one million amateur alien hunters, the users of
SETI@home, for messages from other civilisations. SETI@home is a distributed computing programme which uses people's home
computers in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
"We've picked out the planets with nice temperatures — between zero and 100 degrees Celsius — because they are a lot more
likely to harbour life," says physicist Dan Werthimer, chief scientist for SETI@home and a veteran SETI researcher.
Werthimer's 30-year-old SETI project normally uses the world's largest radio telescope, the Arecibo receiver in Puerto Rico. But the
giant "ear" used for this new search will be the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Viriginia. It can focus on an area of
the northern sky that Arecibo cannot view and it can also scan a larger range of wavelengths, including those away from the region
traditionally favoured by alien hunters, called the waterhole. This means that even if aliens are not intentionally sending mesages
to us, we may be able to listen in on their private communications.
If you listen out for signals from space, what you hear is a lot of noise. The galaxy itself produces noise at the lower end of the
electromagnetic spectrum and atmospheric processes emit noise at the higher end. But inbetween these two extremes, there is a
relatively quiet region: an intelligent civilisation trying to send messages across the Universe are likely to use this quieter range in
their communications.
The idea is that water-based life-forms would recognise these important markers on the spectrum and use them in an attempt to
communicate with the rest of the cosmos. For this reason the band is called the waterhole — a place for life to meet and chat.
"This is an interesting place, perhaps a beacon frequency, to look for signals from extraterrestrial civilisations," says Andrew
Siemion, a graduate student from UC Berkeley.
The Arecibo telescope does indeed focus on a range centering on the 21cm line, but Werthimer says that it's worth widening the
search. "Searching for ET around the 21 centimeter line works if civilisations are broadcasting intentionally, but what if planets are
leaking signals like 'I Love Lucy'? With a new data recorder on the Green Bank telescope, we can scan a 800 MHz range of
frequencies simultaneously, which is 300 times the range we can get at Arecibo."
The 86 planets the telescope will investigate were chosen from the 1,235 planetary systems spotted by the Kepler space telescope
in our galaxy. After it has targeted each of these systems, the Green Bank telescope will scan the entire viewing field of Kepler for
signals from other planets too. "If you extrapolate from the Kepler data, there could be 50 billion planets in the galaxy," says
Werthimer. "It's really exciting to be able to look at this first batch of Earth-like planets."
Are You Cleverer Than A Pigeon?
 Even Pigeons Can Do Mathematics
Pigeons, it turns out, are no slouches either. It was known that they could count. But all sorts of animals, including bees, can count.
Pigeons have now shown that they can learn abstract rules about numbers, an ability that until now had been demonstrated only in
primates. In the 1990s scientists trained rhesus monkeys to look at groups of items on a screen and to rank them from the lowest number
of items to the highest.

They learned to rank groups of one, two and three items in various sizes and shapes. When tested, they were able to do the task even
when unfamiliar numbers of things were introduced. In other words, having learned that two was more than one and three more than
two, they could also figure out that five was more than two, or eight more than six. Elizabeth Brannon, a professor of psychology and
neuroscience at Duke University, and one of the scientists who did the original experiments with monkeys, was impressed by the new
results. “Their performance looks just like the monkeys’,” she said.

Score one for the birds. The pigeons had learned an abstract rule: peck images on a screen in order, lower numbers to higher. It may have
taken a year of training, with different shapes, sizes and colors of items, always in groups of one, two or three, but all that work paid off
when it was time for higher math. Given groups of six and nine, they could pick, or peck, the images in the right order. This is one more
bit of evidence of how smart birds really are, and it is intriguing because the pigeons’ performance was so similar to the monkeys’. “I was
surprised,” Dr. Scarf said.

He and his colleagues wrote that the common ability to learn rules about numbers is an example either of different groups — birds and
primates, in this case — evolving these abilities separately, or of both pigeons and primates using an ability that was already present in
their last common ancestor. That would really be something, because the common ancestor of pigeons and primates would have been
alive around 300 million years ago, before dinosaurs and mammals. It may be that counting was already important, but Dr. Scarf said
that if he had to guess, he would lean toward the idea that the numerical ability he tested evolved separately. “I can definitely see why
both monkeys and pigeons could profit from this ability,” he said.
Fighting Violent Gang Crime With Maths
In developing their algorithm, the mathematicians analyzed more than 1,000 gang crimes and suspected gang
crimes, about half of them unsolved, that occurred over a 10-year period in an East Los Angeles police district
known as Hollenbeck, a small area in which there are some 30 gangs and nearly 70 gang rivalries.
To test the algorithm, the researchers created a set of simulated data that closely mimicked the crime patterns of
the Hollenbeck gang network. They then dropped some of the key information out -- at times the victim, the
perpetrator or both -- and tested how well the algorithm could calculate the missing information.
"If police believe a crime might have been committed by one of seven or eight rival gangs, our method would
look at recent historical events in the area and compute probabilities as to which of these gangs are most likely
to have committed crime," said the study's senior author, Andrea Bertozzi, a professor of mathematics and
director of applied mathematics at UCLA.
About 80 percent of the time, the mathematicians could narrow it down to three gang rivalries that were most
likely involved in a crime.
"Our algorithm placed the correct gang rivalry within the top three most likely rivalries 80 percent of the time,
which is significantly better than chance," said Martin Short, a UCLA adjunct assistant professor of mathematics
and co-author of the study. "That narrows it down quite a bit, and that is when we don't know anything about the
crime victim or perpetrator."
The mathematicians also found that the correct gang was ranked No. 1 -- rather than just among the top three --
50 percent of the time, compared with just 17 percent by chance.
Bertozzi and her colleagues have been working with the LAPD on a variety of classes of crime. The implications
of the research go beyond fighting gangs and beyond fighting crime.
"The algorithm we devised could apply to a much broader class of problems that involve activity on social
networks," Bertozzi said. "You have events -- they could be crimes or something else -- that occur in a time
series and a known network. There is activity between nodes, in this case a gang attacking another gang. With
some of these activities, you know exactly who was involved and with others, you do not.
 Maths in the Movies
100 powerful supercomputers perform geometrical, algebraic and calculus-based calculations to animate Pixar's
characters. The laws of physics that inform the dynamics of fabric movement are most used in the computations.
It is high school math that can actually help bring animated movies to life. Tony DeRose, a computer scientist at
Pixar Animation Studios, realized his love of mathematics could transfer into a real world, real interesting job by
bringing the pretend world of animation to life. He told DBIS, "Without mathematics, we wouldn't have these
visually rich environments, and visually rich characters."
Advances in math can lead to advances in animation. Earlier math techniques show simple, hard, plastic toys.
Now, advances in math help make more human-like characters and special effects. DeRose explains the
difference a few years can make, "You didn't see any water in Toy Story, whereas by the time we got to Finding
Nemo, we had the computer techniques that were needed to create all the splash effects."
How exactly do the high school math classes help with the animation? Trigonometry helps rotate and move
characters, algebra creates the special effects that make images shine and sparkle and calculus helps light up a
scene. DeRose encourages people to stick with their math classes. He says, "I remember as a mathematics
student thinking, 'Well, where am I ever going to use simultaneous equations?' And I find myself using them
every day, all the time now."
HOW PIXAR DOES IT: Perhaps the most difficult aspect of animation is making people and clothing look real.
Pixar's software is based on complex studies of how cloth moves when draped on a character, based on the
laws of physics. For instance, drape a bedsheet between two points, and the center will hang downward,
adjusting itself until it comes to rest in a state of pure tension.
The animators begin with drawings of the characters, which they use to build computer puppets, later adding
digital "strings" that correspond to various geometric points on the puppet. These strings serve as animation
controls, ensuring that as each string is "pulled," the puppet's movements reflect what would occur in real life.
Color and lighting effects are added last before the puppet is "animated." Pixar uses 100 powerful
supercomputers that run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It still takes the computers five to six hours to
render a single frame lasting 1/24th of a second. For every second of film, it takes the computer six days.
Discovering the world’s favourite numbers
A maths expert wants to find out about our favourite numbers. What's yours? Why? And what
do the answers reveal about individuals and even national cultures?
Travelling round the globe researching the origins, Intriguingly, this attraction to the symbol of nothingness could
applications and beauties of mathematics – not to mention the have a religious or spiritual dimension: early Western
eccentricities of maths enthusiasts – writer and maths civilisations, including Greece and Rome, had no way of
graduate Alex Bellos found himself challenged at every turn. quantifying the idea of infinity and no zero, seriously limiting
their ability to count and calculate, which maths historians
'Hey, Alex, what's your favourite number?'
speculate was to do with a fear of the void, of a world without
The question baffled, even irritated him. As a 'serious' person, God; but for Indians, from whom we derive modern
he couldn't understand the concept of an emotional numbering systems including the crucial addition of zero,
attachment to one number rather than another, let alone why nothingness is nirvana, the state of emptiness towards which
people seemed to have such strong feelings about it. Surely all humanity should strive.
the question was frivolous, and of interest only to people who
Magic numbers
were superstitious about lucky numbers or sentimental about
some date that was significant to their own self or family? When it comes to individuals, Alex thinks that those with more
mathematical ability might tend to have purely mathematical
But the question kept on coming, so after a while, he decided
reasons for their preferences – that they love a prime number
to bring some rigour and analysis to this alternative approach
or a number that is very divisible, for example.
to numbers. Displaying no lack of ambition, Alex has invited
all of us, across the world, to tell him about our favourite But those with more personal reasons for liking a particular
numbers and the reason they are special to us. If we don't number might have less mathematical ability and therefore a
have a favourite, he wants to know that too, and why. From greater desire to exert emotional control over something that
this global survey, he hopes to demonstrate some trends. they don't understand very well by giving it characteristics
'and making it into a friend.'
For example, we already know that in Chinese cultures, the
number 8 is considered lucky. And the survey has already When the results are published next year, we'll find out more
thrown up the idea that people in India are particularly patterns. So go on, get involved!
enthusiastic about 1, 10 and even 0.
Counting qubits: computing at the edge of reality
Scientists in America are celebrating an exciting new invention. If the 'quantum computer' can
be made to work, we might be on the brink of a technological revolution.

For years, scientists have dreamt of quantum computers. By But there is a limit. Some time around 2020, predicts physicist
manipulating the quantum properties of atoms, at the very limits Michio Kaku, we'll reach a point where connections in chips are
of scientific understanding, they hoped to build machines that only five atoms thick. Smaller than that, the laws of physics start
would make the most powerful computers of today look like to break down – and ordinary circuits stop working. That would
childish toys. mean computers would stop getting smaller, and the whole high-
tech economy might grind disastrously to halt.
And now, that dream is closer to reality. Researchers at a
conference in Texas have shown off a new device that points the Quantum computers could solve that problem by working with
way to a first working example of the technology. 'We're right at the bizarre rules of quantum mechanics, the science that
the bleeding edge,' said one scientist, 'of actually having a governs the behaviour of objects on an atomic scale. With
quantum processor.' quantum mechanics, you can make a tiny object called a 'qubit'
that can be in two opposite states at the same time.
Today, a single silicon chip has more computer power than was
held by all the allied nations combined at the end of the Second Quantum leap
World War. By encoding information into qubits, you could revolutionise the
way computers work. Their unique quantum properties mean
Your mobile phone is a more powerful computer than those
that it might only take a few hundred qubits to outstrip the best
which NASA used in the sixties to put men on the moon.
computers we can produce today. In theory, they could give
A Playstation 3, which costs about £200, is more powerful than a supercomputer levels of power crammed into a chip the size of a
military supercomputer built as recently as 1997, at a cost of fingernail.
millions. In fact, every 18 months, the memory you can squash
The possible uses are endless, from artificial intelligence to
onto a computer chip will more or less double. As computer
ultra-realistic gaming. We could do more science faster, and
chips get smaller, computers get more powerful. Complicated
make impossible tasks easier. In fact, we may only be limited by
programmes can now be run on laptops, ipads, smartphones
our imaginations.
and even digital watches.
PATTERNS IN NATURE
So, did you spot the pattern? To get the next number in the sequence you add together the previous two. We need
two numbers to start the sequence off, and in the case of the Fibonacci sequence we start with 1 and 1.

Leonardo Fibonacci was born in Pisa in the 12th century. He was a merchant and customs officer of the time,
travelling widely in North Africa. He was also one of the first Europeans to learn about the Arabic numbers 0, 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and to persuade other people to use them; before then everybody counted in 12s.

Leonardo was trying to find a way of modelling the population of rabbits. Let us suppose that any new pair of rabbits
produces one pair in the next breeding season and one in the season after that, and then they die. This means that
the total number of new pairs in a given season is equal to the number of new pairs born in the previous season,
plus the number born in the season before that. So to find the next number in the sequence you add together the last
number and the one before it. Starting with one pair of rabbits, you can easily generate the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,
13, 21, 34, 55, 89, ... - the population of rabbits grows very quickly - actually exponentially fast!

The surprising thing about Fibonacci's sequence is that it turns out to occur in many different places in nature. The
way in which the spiral patterns of sunflower seeds and pine cones grow is described by the sequence, and it is
common for the number of petals on a flower to be a Fibonacci number. Four-leaved clovers are rarer than five-
leaved ones because five is in Fibonacci's sequence and four isn't!

If you take the ratios of successive Fibonacci numbers - 1/2, 2/3, 3/5,5/8, 8/13, 13/21, 21/34, and so on - the
fractions get closer and closer to the Golden Ratio (or Golden Section), , which is about 0.61803.... To be precise,

The Golden Ratio is a very special number, and has been known about since Greek times. Paintings with a height to
width ratio of have an especially aesthetically pleasing aspect. The Ratio is sometimes called the "divine
proportion", which is particularly apt as many religious paintings use it. The worlds of nature and science are founded
on a bedrock of mathematics.
Predicting Hurricanes
Hurricanes have huge potential for damage to both life and property, but are incredibly difficult to predict. If we were
able to tell which direction they were likely to travel in then we would be able to take evasive action. Mathematics can
in principle provide the answer to this complex problem; one of the crucial equations describes the mixing process in
a swirling flow, a problem familiar at the breakfast table when we stir cream into a cup of coffee.

Cyclones arise over the deep tropical ocean by a process of convergence of airflow which intensifies the rate at
which the air spins: it is like the familiar bathtub vortex, but on a very much larger scale. The pressure is low at the
centre of the resulting atmospheric vortex, and so water vapour and droplets are sucked up into the vortex from the
ocean surface. A complex process of interaction between the swirling air flow and the water vapour ensues.

This process influences the power of the vortex and whether it will eventually turn into a tropical cyclone with
devastating destructive potential: if it does, then the cyclone interacts with atmospheric winds in further complex
processes that determine its path across the ocean surface. Mathematicians seek to predict this path in order to
give warning of potential disaster when the cyclone hits land.

The mixing of water vapour within the vortex is a crucial part of this whole scenario. This mixing process is
described mathematically in its simplest form by the famous "advection-diffusion equation" shown on the
poster. This is analogous to the "cream in coffee" experiment, advection by circulating flow generates tightly wound
spirals of water vapour (or of cream and coffee) - so tight that molecular diffusion is always important no matter how
small may be. The interaction between advection and diffusion is subtle, and can only be understood through
mathematical and computational analysis of the advection-diffusion equation.

The type of advection-diffusion process described above occurs in many other contexts. For example, it plays a part
in the process by which spiral galaxies are formed. Think of this when you drink your next cup of coffee! In both
contexts, the inner regions rotate more rapidly than the outer regions, and this is why spirals are formed.
Chaos Theory
The weather is notoriously hard to predict. Ever since Michael Fish famously declared on national television in
October 1987 that there was going to be no hurricane, the day before the worst storms since 1703, people have
been wary of weather reports. But in fact our ability to forecast the weather has improved immeasurably in the past
few decades: mathematical researchers have been working with meteorologists, oceanographers and physicists
since the end of World War II on the problem.

There are many difficulties in weather prediction. When it's raining in your town, it is quite possible for it to be dry (or
even sunny!) just a few miles away. No TV presenter can show that level of detail on a weather map, and whatever
the presenter says somebody will complain that it wasn't right. Another difficulty is that the weather is chaotic - which
means that tiny changes in the atmosphere today can result in completely different weather patterns in a few days'
time. This is known as the "Butterfly Effect": if a butterfly decides to flap its wings in Florida Springs then it could
cause a hurricane in Spain a week later. This is one of the hallmarks of a chaotic system. The phenomemon of
chaos is still not completely understood and mathematicians work on it even today.

In 1963 the metereologist Edward Lorenz, working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA,
invented and studied a simplified model of thermal convection, which can be seen as a very basic model of the
weather. This model consists of only the three "differential equations" as shown on the poster:

To his surprise he found that the equations behaved in an unpredictable way: the smallest changes in the starting
conditions lead to very different evolution of the system after only a short time. Despite its simplicity, the system is
chaotic. In spite of this chaotic nature there is a remarkable structure in the equations: it is possible to find a so-
called "strange attractor", which is shown on the poster as the yellow spiralling set of points. Whatever initial
conditions you use, the system of equations is attracted to this set; but the motion on the attractor is very
unpredictable and continually mixes around.
Modeling the World – Cold and Hot
Networking
The internet
Networks (and the mathematics of networks) are becoming increasingly important in everyday life. Finding the
fastest way to route information through networks such as the internet is now of major importance.

If you are reading this page on the internet, then did you realise that the information contained here was first broken
down into smaller pieces, called packets; these packets have each journeyed through a complicated network of
computers and switching devices before arriving at your computer, where they have been put back together (in the
correct order!), forming the page that you now see.

Different parts of the internet are able to carry messages at different speeds (at different times), so it's important that
packets of information can be re-routed around bottlenecks in the system to make sure they reach their destination
on time. The computers which control the internet make thousands (even millions) of decisions about how to route
packets every second. (If you've ever sat in a traffic jam and thought about trying to cut down a side-street to avoid it,
the problems involved for the internet are not so different in many ways.)
Probability
Code Breaking
Space Exploration
Real Life Maths: Space Exploration.
Everything from rocket design, to remote landing, to communicating across millions
of miles requires mathematics. Most NASA astronauts are mathematicians who have
spent years working on planning space exploration
 Mars Rover Facts!
1) The mission launched in 2003 – and travelled an astonishing 487 million kilometers in its total journey to Mars.

2) Mars is so far away that it takes light over 10 minutes to actually reach Earth from Mars. So, when you see Mars in the
sky you aren’t seeing Mars as it exists now – but as how it existed 10 minutes ago.

3) The mission cost $820 million in total, consisting approximately of $645 million spacecraft development and science
instruments; $100 million launch; $75 million mission operations and science processing

4) Despite being millions of miles away from Earth, scientists were still able to land safely – by deploying a giant parachute.
Because the robot is solar-powered, they have been able to keep exploring the planet for an incredible 7 years – all through
remote control!

5) The mission's objective is to search for clues to past water activity on Mars. If we find water then that gives us both the
possibility of finding alien life and also of maybe one day living on Mars!
 Mercury
Distance from Sun: 58million km
Diameter: 4870km
Length of day: 4222 hours
 Venus
Distance from Sun: 108 million km
Diameter: 12,000km
Length of day: 2802 hours
 Earth
Distance from Sun: 149 million km
Diameter: 12,756 km
Length of day: 24 hours
 Mars
Distance from Sun: 778 million
km
Diameter: 6792km
Length of day: 24.7 hours
 Jupiter
Distance from Sun: 779million km
Diameter: 142,984km
Length of day: 9.9 hours
 Saturn
Distance from Sun: 1.4billion
km
Diameter: 120,500km
Length of day: 10.7 hours
 Uranus
Distance from Sun: 2.9 billion
km
Diameter: 51,000km
Length of day: 17.2 hours
 Neptune
Distance from Sun: 4.5 billion
km
Diameter: 49,500km
Length of day: 16.1 hours
Voyager 2 – The fastest, furthest travelling man-made invention ever!

Voyager 2
Distance from Sun: 13.7billion
km
Speed: 1000km per minute
(15km per second)
Launched: 1977
Time to reach next star:
296,000 years
 Alpha Centuri
Distance from Sun: 41 trillion km
(41,000,000,000,000km)
Our nearest star.
 The 8 Biggest Mysteries in Astronomy

The universe has been around for roughly 13.7 billion years, but it still holds many mysteries that continue to perplex astronomers to this day.
Ranging from dark energy to cosmic rays to the uniqueness of our own solar system, there is no shortage of cosmic oddities.

The journal Science summarized some of the most bewildering questions being asked by leading astronomers today.
 What is Dark Energy?
Dark energy is thought to be the enigmatic force that is pulling the cosmos apart at ever-increasing speeds, and is used by astronomers to explain
the universe's accelerated expansion.

This elusive force has yet to be directly detected, but dark energy is thought to make up roughly 73 percent of the universe.
 How Hot is Dark Matter?
Dark matter is an invisible mass that is thought to make up about 23 percent of the universe. Dark matter has mass but cannot be seen, so
scientists infer its presence based on the gravitational pull it exerts on regular matter.

Researchers remain curious about the properties of dark matter, such as whether it is icy cold as many theories predict, or if it is warmer.
 Where are the Missing Baryons?
Dark energy and dark matter combine to occupy approximately 95 percent of the universe, with regular matter making up the remaining 5
percent. But, researchers have been puzzled to find that more than half of this regular matter is missing.

This missing matter is called baryonic matter, and it is composed of particles such as protons and electrons that make up majority of the mass of
the universe's visible matter.

Some astrophysicists suspect that missing baryonic matter may be found between galaxies, in material known as warm-hot intergalactic medium,
but the universe's missing baryons remain a hotly debated topic.
 How do Stars Explode?
When massive stars run out of fuel, they end their lives in gigantic explosions called supernovas. These spectacular blasts are so bright they can
briefly outshine entire galaxies.

Extensive research and modern technologies have illuminated many details about supernovas, but how these massive explosions occur is still a
mystery. Scientists are keen to understand the mechanics of these stellar blasts, including what happens inside a star before it ignites as a
supernova.
 What Re-ionized the Universe?
The broadly accepted Big Bang model for the origin of the universe states that the cosmos began as a hot, dense point approximately 13.7 billion
years ago.

The early universe is thought to have been a dynamic place, and about 13 billion years ago, it underwent a so-called age of re-ionization. During
this period, the universe's fog of hydrogen gas was clearing and becoming translucent to ultraviolet light for the first time.

Scientists have long been puzzled over what caused this re-ionization to occur.
 What's the Source of the Most
Energetic Cosmic Rays?
Cosmic rays are highly energetic particles that flow into our solar system from deep in outer space, but the actual origin of these charged
subatomic particles has perplexed astronomers for about a century.

The most energetic cosmic rays are extraordinarily strong, with energies up to 100 million times greater than particles that have been produced
in manmade colliders. Over the years, astronomers have attempted to explain where cosmic rays originate before flowing into the solar system,
but their source has proven to be an enduring astronomical mystery.
 Why is the Solar System so
Bizarre?
As alien planets around other stars are discovered, astronomers have tried to tackle and understand how our own solar system came to be.

The differences in the planets within our solar system have no easy explanation, and scientists are studying how planets are formed in hopes of
better grasping the unique characteristics of our solar system. This research could, in fact, get a boost from the hung for alien worlds, some
astronomers have said, particularly if patterns arise in their observations of extrasolar planetary systems.
 Why is the Sun's Corona so Hot?
The sun's corona is its ultra-hot outer atmosphere, where temperatures can reach up to a staggering 10.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (6 million
degrees Celsius).

Solar physicists have been puzzled by how the sun reheats its corona, but research points to a link between energy beneath the visible surface,
and processes in the sun's magnetic field. But, the detailed mechanics behind coronal heating are still unknown.