Rob Eastaway
@robeastaway
Author, speaker, Director of www.mathsinspiration.com, cricket-lover, dad. Friend of BBC R4's podcast More or Less.
At a teacher conference in Blackburn this morning I revealed the secret of how ANY CHILD can become one of THE TOP 1% MATHEMATICIANS in the country. Spoiler alert - all they have to do is travel back 450 years to the time of Elizabeth I.
Coming to Leeds very soon - replicas of John Venn's incredible bowling machine, first tested out on the touring Australian Ashes team in 1909. It's part of the City of Maths programme. www.cityofmaths.co.uk/whats-on/bow...
Ouch - this is what can happen when you try to catch a hard red ball and fail. But at least the sit in A&E has given me a chance to finish the excellent biography of Thomas Harriot, the greatest English mathematician that nobody's ever heard of.
Imagine if numeracy were taught in history lessons. So many great stories about how and why the Tudors switched from Roman to Indo Arabic numerals. Here's the GCSE 'exam' that we circulated at the recent @histassoc.bsky.social conference: robeastaway.com/graphics/GCS... #NationalNumeracyDay
Last weekend, three mathematicians set up a history stall at the annual @histassoc.bsky.social conference. Here's what happened next robeastaway.com/blog/history...
And finally, here's Section B for my imagined History of Maths GCSE (Elizabethan England). Remember it's just a thought experiment. There are five questions across two pages. Oh, and the answers to Section A were: 1(c) 2(b). 3(a). 4(d). 5(c). 6(d)
Here is the first section of the History of Mathematics GCSE (Elizabethan England paper) that I announced yesterday. This is the ‘quickie’ section, with six multiple choice questions. I’ll publish the answers tomorrow morning, along with the meatier Section B. You may now turn over...
What if there were a GCSE for History of Mathematics? I've been imagining the Elizabethan England module and will be handing out a sample exam paper at the @histassoc.bsky.social conference in Gateshead. Below is the cover page. I'll publish Section A tomorrow.
One of the prizes in the quiz is a British History ruler signed by Tom Holland (no, not Spiderman, the other one).
In a happy coincidence, new paperback editions of of my two least mathsy books come out in the USA this month - from different publishers. Apart from their English-ness I don't think Shakespeare and Cricket have much in common. (Cricket Explained is the US title for What Is A Googly?)
2B or not 2B? Evidence that Shakespeare may have used a pencil, made from Lake District graphite. Read more in Stationery News (where else?). #PencilDay www.stationerynews.net/2b-or-not-2b...
Here's part of an A level formula sheet. It tells you how to solve a quadratic. Students have this with them in their exam, so they don't have to memorise it. Whatever next?! Er...actually this is from the SMP Advanced tables book, 1975 (first edition 1966). Plus ca change.
SHAKESPEARE BY NUMBERS - A free public talk On 10th March at 5pm, @freeburian.bsky.social and I are doing a joint talk on how numbers influenced Shakespeare. The venue is the London Interdisciplinary School in Whitechapel. A limited number of seats available, message one of us if you'd like to come.
I just bought a new toy - it's a fully working giant slide rule that was used for classroom demonstrations in the 1960s. This is what people used for doing tricky calculations, before electronic calculators took over in the late 1970s.
Here’s my maths colleague @sparksmaths.bsky.social performing it on the Widnes platform in 2019 (there were no other passengers to hear it).
Not been to the new MathsWorld in London yet? Come along on the evening of Thursday 29th Jan. I'm doing a talk on the maths of Shakespeare's London and it's also a chance to play with all the puzzles and exhibits. mathsworld.com/events/Shake...
Step into Shakespeare's London as never before, an evening talk on Thursday 29th January at the amazing new MathsWorld venue, not far from the Globe mathsworld.com/events
I loved performing my Much Ado About Numbers show for Year 10s at the Rose Theatre in Kingston yesterday - a theatre based on the plan of the original @roseplayhouse.bsky.social in Southwark. "Swear not by the moon...That monthly changes in her circled orb" (Romeo & Juliet)
I just needed to use Pythagoras in everyday life! We are using tape to mark up a 3-mens morris board on stage. The board need to be about 2.5m square. How much tape do we need? (I make it ~22 metres).
Top tip: If you're a bill poster, be careful to get the join in the right place. Apply now for your Klarna "debt card". [seen on LinkedIn]
An interaction at yesterday's launch of #MathsWeekEngland at the new MathsWorld venue near London's Bankside. Mum with child: "What do you call the type of maths that's here at MathsWorld?" Me: "It's officially called 'fun and interesting' maths" Mum: "Ooh, we love this sort of maths"
Great to see that @teakayb.mathsy.space is doing a session on history of maths at tomorrow’s #mathsconf39 - such an important and neglected topic.
Yesterday I visited a Lancashire school who hosted a Year 10 Maths-History-Shakespeare day. It included quizzes, a talk and a 45 minute team DT challenge to build a cardboard replica of The Globe. This was the winner. @englishassociation.bsky.social @histassoc.bsky.social @mathematicala.bsky.social
Today it's sunny AND windy in the UK, and 80% of the UK's energy is currently coming from renewables. #GoodNews
How to give circle theorems an Art Attack robeastaway.com/blog/art-att...