Even More Maths Investigation

Ideas for A-level, IB and Gifted

GCSE Students

All this content taken from my site at www.ibmathsresources.com you might

find it easier to follow hyperlinks from there. I thought Id put a selection of the
posts Ive made over the past year into a word document these are all related to
maths investigations or enrichment ideas. Some are suitable for top set students
across the year groups, others may only be suitable for sixth form students.
However, whatever level you teach therell definitely be something of use!

This is the second document Ive made with investigation content. The first one is
available for download on TES here.

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 Index:

Page 3 - 7 More than 100 ideas for investigation/enrichment topics for sixth form
maths students

Pages 8 10 Secondary data resources and suggestions for investigations ideas.

Pages 12 80. Content:

Plotting Stewie Griffin from Family Guy

Modeling Volcanoes When will they erupt?
Arithmetic Sequences Puzzle
Mandelbrot and Julia Sets Pictures of Infinity
Reaction times How fast are you?
Are you Psychic?
Tetrahedral Numbers Stacking Cannonballs
Hailstone Numbers
Stellar Numbers Investigation
Making Music With Sine Waves
Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse
Modelling for Zombies
The Chinese Postman Problem
Analytic Continuation and the Riemann Zeta Function
How contagious is Ebola?
Batman and Superman Maths
Zenos Paradox Achilles and the Tortoise
Fourier Transforms the most important tool in mathematics?
Non Euclidean Geometry V The Shape of the Universe
Non Euclidean Geometry An Introduction
IB Higher Level Video Past Paper Worked Solutions
The Telephone Numbers Graph Theory
Friendly Numbers, Solitary Numbers, Perfect Numbers
Using Chi Squared to Crack Codes

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Maths Exploration Topics: 100+ ideas for investigations.

Algebra and number

1) Modular arithmetic - This technique is used throughout Number Theory. For

example, Mod 3 means the remainder when dividing by 3.
2) Goldbachs conjecture: "Every even number greater than 2 can be expressed as
the sum of two primes." One of the great unsolved problems in mathematics.
3) Probabilistic number theory
4) Applications of complex numbers: The stunning graphics of Mandelbrot and Julia
Sets are generated by complex numbers.
5) Diophantine equations: These are polynomials which have integer
solutions. Fermat's Last Theorem is one of the most famous such equations.
6) Continued fractions: These are fractions which continue to infinity. The great
Indian mathematician Ramanujan discovered some amazing examples of these.
7) Patterns in Pascals triangle: There are a large number of patterns to discover -
including the Fibonacci sequence.
8) Finding prime numbers: The search for prime numbers and the twin prime
conjecture are some of the most important problems in mathematics. There is a $1
million prize for solving the Riemann Hypothesis and $250,000 available for anyone
who discovers a new, really big prime number.
9) Random numbers
10) Pythagorean triples: A great introduction into number theory - investigating the
solutions of Pythagoras' Theorem which are integers (eg. 3,4,5 triangle).
11) Mersenne primes: These are primes that can be written as 2^n -1.
12) Magic squares and cubes: Investigate magic tricks that use mathematics. Why
do magic squares work?
13) Loci and complex numbers
14) Egyptian fractions: Egyptian fractions can only have a numerator of 1 - which
leads to some interesting patterns. 2/3 could be written as 1/6 + 1/2. Can all
fractions with a numerator of 2 be written as 2 Egyptian fractions?
15) Complex numbers and transformations
16) Eulers identity: An equation that has been voted the most beautiful equation of
all time, Euler's identity links together 5 of the most important numbers in
mathematics.

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17) Chinese remainder theorem. This is a puzzle that was posed over 1500 years
ago by a Chinese mathematician. It involves understanding the modulo operation.
18) Fermats last theorem: A problem that puzzled mathematicians for centuries -
and one that has only recently been solved.
19) Natural logarithms of complex numbers
20) Twin primes problem: The question as to whether there are patterns in the
primes has fascinated mathematicians for centuries. The twin prime conjecture
states that there are infinitely many consecutive primes ( eg. 5 and 7 are
consecutive primes). There has been a recent breakthrough in this problem.
21) Hypercomplex numbers
22) Diophantine application: Cole numbers
23) Odd perfect numbers: Perfect numbers are the sum of their factors (apart from
the last factor). ie 6 is a perfect number because 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.
24) Euclidean algorithm for GCF
25) Palindrome numbers: Palindrome numbers are the same backwards as forwards.
26) Fermats little theorem: If p is a prime number then a^p - a is a multiple of p.
27) Prime number sieves
28) Recurrence expressions for phi (golden ratio): Phi appears with remarkable
consistency in nature and appears to shape our understanding of beauty and
symmetry.
29) The Riemann Hypothesis - one of the greatest unsolved problems in
mathematics - worth $1million to anyone who solves it (not for the faint hearted!)
30) Time travel to the future: Investigate how traveling close to the speed of light
allows people to travel "forward" in time relative to someone on Earth. Why does
the twin paradox work?
31) Graham's Number - a number so big that thinking about it could literally collapse
your brain into a black hole.
32) RSA code - the most important code in the world? How all our digital
communications are kept safe through the properties of primes.
33) The Chinese Remainder Theorem: This is a method developed by a Chinese
mathematician Sun Zi over 1500 years ago to solve a numerical puzzle. An
interesting insight into the mathematical field of Number Theory.
34) Cesaro Summation: Does 1 1 + 1 1 = 1/2?. A post which looks at the
maths behind this particularly troublesome series.
35) Fermat's Theorem on the sum of 2 squares - An example of how to use
mathematical proof to solve problems in number theory.
36) Can we prove that 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 .... = -1/12 ? How strange things happen when
we start to manipulate divergent series.
37) Mathematical proof and paradox - a good opportunity to explore some methods
of proof and to show how logical errors occur.

Geometry

1) Non-Euclidean geometries: This allows us to "break" the rules of conventional

geometry - for example, angles in a triangle no longer add up to 180 degrees.
2) Hexaflexagons: These are origami style shapes that through folding can reveal
extra faces.
3) Minimal surfaces and soap bubbles: Soap bubbles assume the minimum possible

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surface area to contain a given volume.
4) Tesseract a 4D cube: How we can use maths to imagine higher dimensions.
5) Stacking cannon balls: An investigation into the patterns formed from stacking
canon balls in different ways.
6) Mandelbrot set and fractal shapes: Explore the world of infinitely generated
pictures and fractional dimensions.
7) Sierpinksi triangle: a fractal design that continues forever.
8) Squaring the circle: This is a puzzle from ancient times - which was to find out
whether a square could be created that had the same area as a given circle. It is
now used as a saying to represent something impossible.
9) Polyominoes: These are shapes made from squares. The challenge is to see how
many different shapes can be made with a given number of squares - and how can
they fit together?
10) Tangrams: Investigate how many different ways different size shapes can be
fitted together.
11) Understanding the fourth dimension: How we can use mathematics to imagine
(and test for) extra dimensions.
12) The Riemann Sphere - an exploration of some non-Euclidean geometry. Straight
lines are not straight, parallel lines meet and angles in a triangle don't add up to 180
degrees.

Calculus/analysis and functions

1) The harmonic series: Investigate the relationship between fractions and music, or
investigate whether this series converges.
2) Torus solid of revolution: A torus is a donut shape which introduces some
interesting topological ideas.
3) Projectile motion: Studying the motion of projectiles like cannon balls is an
essential part of the mathematics of war. You can also model everything from Angry
Birds to stunt bike jumping. A good use of your calculus skills.
4) Why e is base of natural logarithm function: A chance to investigate the amazing
number e.

Statistics and modelling

1) Traffic flow: How maths can model traffic on the roads.

2) Logistic function and constrained growth
3) Benford's Law - using statistics to catch criminals by making use of a surprising
distribution.
4) Bad maths in court - how a misuse of statistics in the courtroom can lead to
devastating miscarriages of justice.
5) The mathematics of cons - how con artists use pyramid schemes to get rich quick.
6) Impact Earth - what would happen if an asteroid or meteorite hit the Earth?
7) Black Swan events - how usefully can mathematics predict small probability high
impact events?
8) Modelling happiness - how understanding utility value can make you happier.
9) Does finger length predict mathematical ability? Investigate the surprising
correlation between finger ratios and all sorts of abilities and traits.

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10) Modelling epidemics/spread of a virus
11) The Monty Hall problem - this video will show why statistics often lead you to
unintuitive results.
12) Monte Carlo simulations
13) Lotteries
14) Bayes theorem: How understanding probability is essential to our legal system.
15) Birthday paradox: The birthday paradox shows how intuitive ideas on probability
can often be wrong. How many people need to be in a room for it to be at least
50% likely that two people will share the same birthday? Find out!
16) Are we living in a computer simulation? Look at the Bayesian logic behind the
argument that we are living in a computer simulation.
17) Does sacking a football manager affect results? A chance to look at some
statistics with surprising results.
18) Which times tables do students find most difficult? A good example of how to
conduct a statistical investigation in mathematics.

Games and game theory

1) The prisoners dilemma: The use of game theory in psychology and economics.
2) Sudoku
3) Gamblers fallacy: A good chance to investigate misconceptions in probability and
probabilities in gambling. Why does the house always win?
4) Bluffing in Poker: How probability and game theory can be used to explore the the
best strategies for bluffing in poker.
5) Knights tour in chess: This chess puzzle asks how many moves a knight must
make to visit all squares on a chess board.
6) Billiards and snooker
7) Zero sum games
8) How to "Solve" Noughts and Crossess (Tic Tac Toe) - using game theory. This
topics provides a fascinating introduction to both combinatorial Game Theory and
Group Theory.
9) Maths and football - Do managerial sackings really lead to an improvement in
results? We can analyse the data to find out. Also look at the finances behind
Premier league teams

Topology and networks

1) Knots
2) Steiner problem
3) Chinese postman problem
4) Travelling salesman problem
5) Knigsberg bridge problem: The use of networks to solve problems. This
particular problem was solved by Euler.
6) Handshake problem: With n people in a room, how many handshakes are
required so that everyone shakes hands with everyone else?
7) Mbius strip: An amazing shape which is a loop with only 1 side and 1 edge.
8) Klein bottle
9) Logic and sets

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10) Codes and ciphers: ISBN codes and credit card codes are just some examples of
how codes are essential to modern life. Maths can be used to both make these
codes and break them.
11) Zenos paradox of Achilles and the tortoise: How can a running Achilles ever
catch the tortoise if in the time taken to halve the distance, the tortoise has moved
yet further away?
12) Four colour map theorem - a puzzle that requires that a map can be coloured in
so that every neighbouring country is in a different colour. What is the minimum
number of colours needed for any map?

Further ideas:

1) Radiocarbon dating - understanding radioactive decay allows scientists and

historians to accurately work out something's age - whether it be from thousands or
even millions of years ago.
2) Gravity, orbits and escape velocity - Escape velocity is the speed required to
break free from a body's gravitational pull. Essential knowledge for future
astronauts.
3) Mathematical methods in economics - maths is essential in both business and
economics - explore some economics based maths problems.
4) Genetics - Look at the mathematics behind genetic inheritance and natural
selection.
5) Elliptical orbits - Planets and comets have elliptical orbits as they are influenced
by the gravitational pull of other bodies in space. Investigate some rocket science!
6) Logarithmic scales Decibel, Richter, etc. are examples of log scales - investigate
how these scales are used and what they mean.
7) Fibonacci sequence and spirals in nature - There are lots of examples of the
Fibonacci sequence in real life - from pine cones to petals to modelling populations
and the stock market.
8) Change in a persons BMI over time - There are lots of examples of BMI stats
investigations online - see if you can think of an interesting twist.
9) Designing bridges - Mathematics is essential for engineers such as bridge builders
- investigate how to design structures that carry weight without collapse.
10) Mathematical card tricks - investigate some maths magic.
Voting systems
11) Flatland by Edwin Abbott - This famous book helps understand how to imagine
extra dimension. You can watch a short video on it here
12) Towers of Hanoi puzzle - This famous puzzle requires logic and patience. Can
you find the pattern behind it?
13) Different number systems - Learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide in
Binary. Investigate how binary is used - link to codes and computing.
14) Methods for solving differential equations - Differential equations are amazingly
powerful at modelling real life - from population growth to to pendulum
motion. Investigate how to solve them.
15) Modelling epidemics/spread of a virus - what is the mathematics behind
understanding how epidemics occur?
16) Hyperbolic functions - These are linked to the normal trigonometric functions but
with notable differences. They are useful for modelling more complex shapes.

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 Statistics and Probability Investigations

Primary or Secondary data?

The main benefit of primary data is that you can really personalise your
investigation. It allows you scope to investigate something that perhaps no-one else
has ever done. It also allows you the ability to generate data that you might not be
able to find online. The main drawback is that collecting good quality data in
sufficient quantity to analyze can be time consuming. You should aim for an
absolute minimum of 50 pieces of data and ideally 60-100 to give yourself a good
amount of data to look at.

The benefits of secondary data are that you can gain access to good quality raw data
on topics that you wouldnt be able to collect data on personally and its also much
quicker to get the data. Potential drawbacks are not being able to find the raw data
that fits what you want to investigate or sometimes having too much data to wade
through.

Secondary data sources:

1) The Census at School website is a fantastic source of secondary data to use. If

you go to the random data generator you can download up to 200 questionnaire
results from school children around the world on a number of topics (each years
questionnaire has up to 20 different questions). Simply fill in your email address
and the name of your school and then follow the instructions.

2) If youre interested in sports statistics then the Olympic Database is a great

resource. It contains an enormous amount of data on winning times and distances
in all events in all Olympics. Follow links at the top of the page to similar databases
on basketball, golf, baseball and American football.

3) If you prefer football, the the Guardian stats centre has information on all
European leagues you can see when a particular team scores most of their goals,
how many goals they score a game, how many red cards they average etc. You can
also find a lot of football stats on the Who Scored website. This gives you data on
things like individual players shots per game, pass completion rate etc.

4) The Guardian Datablog has over 800 data files to view or download everything
from the Premier League football accounts of clubs to a list of every Dr Who villain,
US gun crime, UK unemployment figures, UK GCSE results by gender, average
pocket money and most popular baby names. You will need to sign into Google to
download the files.

5) The World Bank has a huge data bank - which you can search by country or by
specific topic. You can compare life-expectancy rates, GDP, access to secondary

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education, spending on military, social inequality, how many cars per 1000 people
and much much more.

6) Gapminder is another great resource for comparing development indicators you

can plot 2 variables on a graph (for example urbanisation against unemployment, or
murder rates against urbanisation) and then run them over a number of years. You
can also download Excel speadsheets of the associated data.

7) Wolfram Alpha is one of the most powerful maths and statistics tools available it
has a staggering amount of information that you can use. If you go to the examples
link above, then you can choose from data on everything from astronomy, the
human body, geography, food nutrition, sports, socioeconomics, education and
shopping.

Example Maths Studies IA Investigations:

Some of these ideas taken from the excellent Oxford IB Maths Studies textbook.

Correlations:

1) Is there a correlation between hours of sleep and exam grades?

Studies have shown that a good nights sleep raises academic attainment.
2) Is there a correlation between height and weight?
The NHS use a chart to decide what someone should weigh depending on their
height. Does this mean that height is a good indicator of weight?
3) Is there a correlation between arm span and foot height?
This is also a potential opportunity to discuss the Golden Ratio in nature.
4) Is there a correlation between the digit ratio and maths ability?
Studies show there is a correlation between digit ratio and everything from academic
ability, aggression and even sexuality.
5) Is there a correlation between smoking and lung capacity?
6) Is there a correlation between GDP and life expectancy?
Run the Gapminder graph to show the changing relationship between GDP and life
expectancy over the past few decades.
7) Is there a correlation between numbers of yellow cards a game and league
position?
Use the Guardian Stats data to find out if teams which commit the most fouls also do
the best in the league.
8) Is there a correlation between Olympic 100m sprint times and Olympic 15000m
times?
Use the Olympic database to find out if the 1500m times have go faster in the same
way the 100m times have got quicker over the past few decades.
9) Is there a correlation between sacking a football manager and improved results?
A recent study suggests that sacking a manager has no benefit and the perceived
improvement in results is just regression to the mean.
10) Is there a correlation between time taken getting to school and the distance a
student lives from school?
11) Does eating breakfast affect your grades?

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12) Is there a correlation between stock prices of different companies?
Use Google Finance to collect data on company share prices.
13) Does teenage drinking affect grades?
A recent study suggests that higher alcohol consumption amongst teenagers leads to
greater social stress and poorer grades.
14) Is there a correlation between unemployment rates and crime?
If there are less work opportunities, do more people turn to crime?
15) Is there a correlation between female participation in politics and wider access to
further education?
16) Is there a correlation between blood alcohol laws and traffic accidents?
17) Is there a correlation between height and basketball ability?
18) Is there a correlation between stress and blood pressure?

Normal distributions:

1) Are a sample of student heights normally distributed?

We know that adult population heights are normally distributed what about student
heights?
2) Are a sample of flower heights normally distributed?
3) Are a sample of student weights normally distributed?
4) Are a sample of student reaction times normally distributed?
Conduct this BBC reaction time test to find out.
5) Are a sample of student digit ratios normally distributed?
6) Are the IB maths test scores normally distributed?
IB test scores are designed to fit a bell curve. Investigate how the scores from
different IB subjects compare.
7) Are the weights of 1kg bags of sugar normally distributed?

Other statistical investigations

1) Does gender affect hours playing sport?

A UK study showed that primary school girls play much less sport than boys.
2) Investigation into the distribution of word lengths in different languages.
The English language has an average word length of 5.1 words. How does that
compare with other languages?
3) Do bilingual students have a greater memory recall than non-bilingual students?
Studies have shown that bilingual students have better working memory does
this include memory recall?
4) Investigation about the distribution of sweets in packets of Smarties. A chance to
buy lots of sweets! Also you could link this with some optimisation investigation.

Probability and statistics

1) The probability behind poker games

2) Finding expected values for games of chance in a casino.
3) Birthday paradox:
The birthday paradox shows how intuitive ideas on probability can often be
wrong. How many people need to be in a room for it to be at least 50% likely that

10
two people will share the same birthday? Find out!
4) Which times tables do students find most difficult?
A good example of how to conduct a statistical investigation in mathematics.
5) Handshake problem
With n people in a room, how many handshakes are required so that everyone
shakes hands with everyone else?

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Plotting Stewie Griffin from Family Guy

Computer aided design gets ever more important in jobs and with graphing
software we can create art using maths functions. For example the graph below
was created by a user, Kara Blanchard on Desmos. You can see the original graph
here, by clicking on each part of the function you can see which functions describe
which parts of Stewie. There are a total of 83 functions involved in this picture. For
example, the partial ellipse:

when x is bounded between 3.24 and 0.9, and y is bounded as less than 1.5
generates Stewies left cheek. This is what he looks like without it:

By clicking on the various functions you can discover which ones are required to
complete the full drawing. Other artwork designed by users includes:

A minion from Despicable Me

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A sunflower:

And Hello Kitty:

See if you can create some designs of your own! This could make an interesting
maths investigation for anyone thinking about a career in computer design or art
as it is a field which will grow in importance in the coming years.
You might also like to look at a similar post on using Wolfram Alpha to plot the
Batman and Superman logos.

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Modeling Volcanoes When will they erupt?

A recent post by the excellent Maths Careers website looked at how we can model
volcanic eruptions mathematically. This is an important branch of mathematics
which looks to assign risk to events and these methods are very important to
statisticians and insurers. Given that large-scale volcanic eruptions have the
potential to end modern civilisation, its also useful to know how likely the next large
eruption is.
The Guardian has recently run a piece on the dangers that large volcanoes pose to
humans. Icelands Eyjafjallajkull volcano which erupted in 2010 caused over
100,000 flights to be grounded and cost the global economy over $1 billion and yet
this was only a very minor eruption historically speaking. For example, the Tombora
eruption in Indonesia (1815) was so big that the explosion could be heard over
2000km away, and the 200 million tones of sulpher that were emitted spread across
the globe, lowering global temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius. This led to
widespread famine as crops failed and tens of thousands of deaths.

Super volcanoes

Even this destruction is insignificant when compared to the potential damage caused
by a super volcano. These volcanoes, like that underneath Yellowstone Park in
America, have the potential to wipe-out millions in the initial explosion and to send
enough sulpher and ash into the air to cause a volcanic winter of significantly lower

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global temperatures. The graphic above shows that the ash from a Yellowstone
eruption could cover the ground of about half the USA. The resultant widespread
disruption to global food supplies and travel would be devastating.
So, how can we predict the probability of a volcanic eruption? The easiest model to
use, if we already have an estimated probability of eruption is the Poisson
distribution:

This formula calculates the probability that X equals a given value of k. is the
mean of the distribution. If X represents the number of volcanic eruptions we have
Pr(X 1) = 1 Pr(x = 0). This gives us a formula for working out the probability of
an eruption as 1 -e-. For example, the Yellowstone super volcano erupts around
every 600,000 years. Therefore if is the number of eruptions every year, we have
= 1/600,000 0.00000167 and 1 -e - also 0.00000167. This gets more
interesting if we then look at the probability over a range of years. We can do this by
modifying the formula for probability as 1 -e-t where t is the number of years for our
range.
So the probability of a Yellowstone eruption in the next 1000 years is 1 -e-0.00167
0.00166, and the probability in the next 10,000 years is 1 -e-0.0167 0.0164. So we
have approximately a 2% chance of this eruption in the next 10,000 years.

A far smaller volcano, like Katla in Iceland has erupted 16 times in the past 1100
years giving a average eruption every 70 years. This gives = 1/70 0.014. So
we can expect this to erupt in the next 10 years with probability 1 -e-0.14 0.0139.
And in the next 30 years with probability 1 -e-0.42 0.34.
The models for volcanic eruptions can get a lot more complicated especially as we
often dont know the accurate data to give us an estimate for the . can be
estimated using a technique called Maximum Likelihood Estimation which you can
read about here.

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Arithmetic Puzzle

Can you find a sequence of consecutive integers that add up to 1000?

This puzzle is based on the excellent book A First Step to Mathematical Olympiad
Problems which is full of problems that could be extended to become exploration
ideas.

Step 1 arithmetic formula

Our first step is to write out what we want:
a + (a+1) + (a+2) + (a +n) = 1000
next we notice that the LHS is an arithmetic series with first term a, last term a+n
and n+1 terms. Therefore we can use the sum of an arithmetic sequence formula:
Sn = 0.5n(u1 + un)
Sn = 0.5(n+1)(a + a+n) = 1000
Sn = (n+1)(2a+n) = 2000

Step 2 logic
However, we currently have 2 unknowns, n and a, and only 1 equation so we cant
solve this straight away. However we do know that both a and n are integers and
n can be taken as positive.
The next step is to see that one of the brackets (n+1)(2a+n) must be odd and the
other even (if n is odd then 2a + n is odd. If n is even then n+1 is odd). Therefore
we can look at the odd factors of 2000:

Step 3 prime factorisation

Using prime factorisation: 2000 = 24 x 5
Therefore any odd factors must solely come from the prime factor combinations of 5
i.e 5, 25 and 125.

Step 4 trial and error

So we now know that either (n+1) or (2a+n) must be 5, 25, 125. And therefore the
other bracket must be 400, 80 or 16 (as 5 x 400 = 2000 etc). Next we can equate
the (n+1) bracket to one of these 6 values, find the value of n and hence find a. For
example:
If one bracket is 5 then the other bracket is 400.

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So if (n+1) = 5 and (2a+n) = 400 then n = 4 and a = 198.
This means that the sequence: 198+199+200+201+202 = 1000.
If (n+1) = 400 and (2a+n) = 5 then n = 399 and a = -197.
This means the sequence: -197 + -196+ -195 + 201 + 202 = 1000.

We follow this same method for brackets 25, 80 and 125,16. This gives the
following other sequences:
28+29+30++51+52 = 1000
-54+-53+-52++69+70 = 1000
-27+-26+-25++51+52 = 1000
55+56+57++69+70 = 1000
So with a mixture of mathematical formulae, prime factorisation, logic and trial and
error we have our solutions. A good example of how mathematics is often solved in
reality!

17
Mandelbrot and Julia Sets Pictures of Infinity

You can see a Mandelbrot zoom on youtube. This is a infinitely large picture which
contains fractal patterns no matter how far you enlarge it. To put some of these
videos in perspective, it would be like starting with a piece of A4 paper and enlarging
it to the size of the universe and even at this magnification you would still see new
patterns emerging.

To understand how to make the Mandelbrot set, we first need to understand Julia
sets. Julia sets are formed by the iterative process:

Zn+1 = Zn2 + c
Here Z is a complex number (of the form a + bi) and c is a constant that we
choose. So, for example if we choose Z1 = 1+i and c = 1 then:
Z2 = Z12 + 1
Z2 =(1+i)2 + 1
Z2 = 2i + 1
We then repeat this process:
Z3 = Z22 + 1
Z3 = (2i+1)2 + 1
Z3 = 4i-3

and so on what we are looking for is whether this iterated Z value will diverge to
infinity (i.e get larger and larger) or if it will remain bounded. If diverges to infinity
we colour the initial point 1+i as red on a complex axis. If it remains bounded we will
colour it in black. In this case our initial point 1 + i will diverge to infinity and so it
will be coloured in red.

Next we do this for every single point in the complex plane each time seeing what
happens when we iterate it many times. Each time we colour it in as red if it
diverges and black if it remains bounded. Once we have done that we will have a
picture which represents what happens to every point in the complex plane. This
then is our Julia set.
For example the Julia set for c = 1 looks like this:

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This is because every single complex number when iterated by Zn+1 = Zn2 + 1 will
diverge to infinity (get infinitely big).
Not very interesting so far, but different values of c provide some amazing patterns.

This above pattern is generated by c = 0.376 0.1566i.

and this pattern is for c = 0.376 0.1566i.

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and this one is c = -0.78 + 0.1i.

The last one for c = 0.4 + 0.1i looks different to the others this one has patterns
but they are not connected together as in the other examples.

Mandelbrot Set
This brings us on to how to calculate the Mandelbrot set. We calculate every
possible Julia set for all complex numbers c, and then for every Julia set which is
connected then we colour the c value in black, and every value of c which the Julia
set is disconnected we colour the c value in red. We then have a new plot in the
complex plane of c values. This gives us the Mandelbrot set shown below:

Dont worry if this seem a bit complicated it is! You can play around making your
own Julia sets by choosing a c value at this online generator.

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Reaction times How fast are you?

Go to the Human Benchmark site and test your reaction times. You have five
attempts to press the mouse as soon as you see the screen turn green. You can
then see how your reaction times compare with people around the world. According
to the site over there have been over 15 million clicks with a median reaction time
of 251 milliseconds and a mean reaction time of 262 milliseconds.

We can see how this data looks plotted on a chart. As we can see this is quite a
good approximation of a bell curve but with a longer tail to the right (some people
have much longer reaction times than we would expect from a pure normal
distribution). In a true normal distribution we would have the mean and the median
the same. Nevertheless this is close enough to model our data using a normal
distribution.

From the data we can take the mean time as 255 milliseconds, and a standard
deviation of around 35 (just by looking at the points where around 68% are within
1s.d)

So, with X N(255, 35) we can then see how we compare with people around the
world. Reaction times significantly faster than average would suggest an ability to
do well in sports such as baseball or cricket where batters need to react to the ball in
a fraction of a second.

I just tried this, and got an average of 272. I can work out what percentage of the
population Im faster than by doing the normal distribution calculation which gives
31% of people slower than this. Trying it again gives an average of 261 this time
43% of people would be slower than this.

Have a go yourselves and see how you get on!

21
Are you Psychic?

There have been people claiming to have paranormal powers for thousands of
years. However, scientifically we can say that as yet we still have no convincing
proof that any paranormal abilities exist. We can show this using some
mathematical tests such as the binomial or normal distribution.

ESP Test

You can test your ESP powers on this site (our probabilities will be a little different
than their ones). You have the chance to try and predict what card the computer
has chosen. After repeating this trial 25 times you can find out if you possess
psychic powers. As we are working with discrete data and have a fixed probability of
guessing (0.2) then we can use a binomial distribution. Say I got 6 correct, do I
have psychic powers?

We have the Binomial model B(25, 0.2), 25 trials and 0.2 probability of success. So
we want to find the probability that I could achieve 6 or more by luck.

The probability of getting exactly 6 right is 0.16. Working out the probability of
getting 6 or more correct would take a bit longer by hand (though could be simplified
by doing 1 P(x 5). Doing this, or using a calculator we find the probability is
0.38. Therefore we would expect someone to get 6 or more correct just by guessing
38% of the time.

So, using this model, when would we have evidence for potential ESP ability? Well,
a minimum bar for our percentages would probably be 5%. So how many do you
need to get correct before there is less than a 5% of that happening by chance?
Using our calculator we can do trial and error to see that the probability of getting 9
or more correct by guessing is only 4.7%. So, someone getting 9 correct might be
showing some signs of ESP. If we asked for a higher % threshold (such as 1%) we
would want to see someone get 11 correct.

22
Tetrahedral Numbers Stacking Cannonballs

This is one of those deceptively simple topics which actually contains a lot of
mathematics and it involves how spheres can be stacked, and how they can be
stacked most efficiently. Starting off with the basics we can explore the sequence:
1, 4, 10, 20, 35, 56.
These are the total number of cannons in a stack as the stack gets higher. From the
diagram we can see that this sequence is in fact a sum of the triangular numbers:

S1 =1
S2 1+3
S3 1+3+6
S4 1+3+6+10

So we can sum the first n triangular numbers to get the general term of the
tetrahedral numbers. Now, the general term of the triangular numbers is 0.5n 2 +
0.5n therefore we can think of tetrahedral numbers as the summation:

But we have known results for the 2 summations on the right hand side:

and

and when we add these two together (with a bit of algebraic manipulation!) we get:

This is the general formula for the total number of cannonballs in a stack n rows
high. We can notice that this is also the same as the binomial coefficient:

23
Therefore we also can find the tetrahedral numbers in Pascals triangle (4th diagonal
column above).
The classic maths puzzle (called the cannonball problem), which asks which
tetrahedral number is also a square number was proved in 1878. It turns out there
are only 3 possible answers. The first square number (1) is also a tetrahedral
number, as is the second square number (4), as is the 140th square number
(19,600).
We can also look at something called the generating function of the sequence. This is
a polynomial whose coefficients give the sequence terms. In this case the generating
function is:

Having looked at some of the basic ideas behind the maths of stacking spheres we
can look at a much more complicated mathematical problem. This is called Keplers
Conjecture and was posed 400 years ago. Kepler was a 17th century
mathematician who in 1611 conjectured that there was no way to pack spheres to
make better use of the given space than the stack above. The spheres pictured
above fill about 74% of the given space. This was thought to be intuitively true but
unproven. It was chosen by Hilbert in the 18th century as one of his famous 23
unsolved problems. Despite much mathematical efforts it was only finally proved in
1998.

24
Hailstone Numbers

This is a post inspired by the article on the same topic by the ever brilliant Plus
Maths. Hailstone numbers are created by the following rules:

if n is even: divide by 2
if n is odd: times by 3 and add 1

We can then generate a sequence from any starting number. For example, starting
with 10:
10, 5, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1
we can see that this sequence loops into an infinitely repeating 4,2,1 sequence.

Trying another number, say 58:

58, 29, 88, 44, 22, 11, 34, 17, 52, 26, 13, 40, 20, 10, 5, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1
and we see the same loop of 4,2,1.

In fact we can use the generator in the Plus Maths article to check any numbers we
can think of, and we still get the pattern 4,2,1 looping. The question is, does every
number end in this loop? Well, we dont know. Every number mathematicians have
checked do indeed lead to this loop, but that is not a proof. Perhaps there is a
counter-example, we just havent found it yet.

Hailstone numbers are called as such because they fall, reach one (the ground)
before bouncing up again. The proper mathematical name for this investigation is
the Collatz conjecture. This was made in 1937 by a German mathematian, Lothar
Collatz.

One way to investigate this conjecture is to look at the length of time it takes a
number to reach the number 1. Some numbers take longer than others. If we could
find a number that didnt reach 1 even in an infinite length of time then the Collatz
conjecture would be false.

25
The following graphic from wikipedia shows how different numbers (x axis) take a
different number of iterations (y axis) to reach 1. We can see that some numbers
take much longer than others to reach one. For example, the number 73 has the
following pattern:

73, 220, 110, 55, 166, 83, 250, 125, 376, 188, 94, 47, 142, 71, 214, 107, 322, 161,
484, 242, 121, 364, 182, 91, 274, 137, 412, 206, 103, 310, 155, 466, 233, 700,
350, 175, 526, 263, 790, 395, 1186, 593, 1780, 890, 445, 1336, 668, 334, 167,
502, 251, 754, 377, 1132, 566, 283, 850, 425, 1276, 638, 319, 958, 479, 1438,
719, 2158, 1079, 3238, 1619, 4858, 2429, 7288, 3644, 1822, 911, 2734, 1367,
4102, 2051, 6154, 3077, 9232, 4616, 2308, 1154, 577, 1732, 866, 433, 1300, 650,
325, 976, 488, 244, 122, 61, 184, 92, 46, 23, 70, 35, 106, 53, 160, 80, 40, 20, 10,
5, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1

so investigating what it is about certain numbers that leads to long chains is one
possible approach to solving the conjecture. This conjecture has been checked by
computers up to a staggering 5.8 x 1018 numbers. That would suggest that the
conjecture could be true but doesnt prove it is. Despite looking deceptively simple,
Paul Erdos one of the great 20th century mathematicians stated in the 1980s that
mathematics is not yet ready for such problems and it has remained unsolved
over the past few decades. Maybe you could be the one to crack this problem!

26
Stellar Numbers Investigation

This is an old IB internal assessment question and so can not be used for the new
IB exploration however it does give a good example of the sort of pattern
investigation that is possible.
The task starts off with the fairly straightforward problem of trying to find the nth
term formula for the triangular numbers:

Method 1
There are a number of ways to do this, probably the easiest is to notice that the
second differences are always constant (+1 each time). Therefore we have a
quadratic sequence in the form an2 + bn + c

We can now substitute the known values when n = 1, 2, 3 into this to find 3
equations:

a(1) + b(1) + c = 1
a(2)2 + b(2) + c = 3
a(3)2 + b(3) + c = 6

this gives us:

a+b+c=1
4a + 2b + c = 3
9a + 3b + c = 6

We can then eliminate using simultaneous equations to find a, b, c. In fact our job is
made easier by knowing that if the second difference is a constant, then the a in our
formula will be half that value. Therefore as our second difference was 1, the value
of a will be 1/2. We then find that b = 1/2 and c = 0. So the formula for the
triangular numbers is:

0.5n2 + 0.5n

27
Method 2
We can also derive this formula by breaking down triangular numbers into the
following series:
1
1+2
1+2+3
1+2+3+4
Therefore we have the sum of an arithmetic series, with first term 1, common
difference 1 and last term n, and so we can use the sum of an arithmetic series
formula:

Sn = 0.5n(a1 + an)
Sn = 0.5n(1 + n) = 0.5n2 + 0.5n
Once this is done, we are asked to find the nth term for the 6-stellar numbers (with
6 vertices) below:

which give the pattern 1, 13, 37, 73

Method 1

Once again we can use the method for quadratic sequences. The second difference
is 12, giving us an2 + bn + c with a = 12/2 = 6. Substituting values gives us:
1 = 6(1)2 + b(1) + c
13 = 6(2)2 + b(2) + c
This simplifies to:
1=6+b+c
13 = 24 + 2b + c
Therefore we can eliminate to find that b = -6 and c = 1.
which gives 6n2 6n + 1

Method 2

A more interesting method makes use of the triangular numbers. We can first note
a recurrence relationship in the stellar numbers each subsequent pattern contains
all the previous patterns inside. In fact we can state the relationship as:
S1
S2 = S1 + outside star edge
S3 = S2 + outside star edge
S4 = S3 + outside star edge

28
The outside star edge of S2 can be thought of as 6 copies of the 2nd triangular
number

The outside star edge of S3 can be thought of as 6 copies of the 3rd triangular
number, but where we subtract 61 (the first triangular number) because we double
count one of the internal points six times. We also subtract 6 as we double count
each vertex.

The outside star edge of S4 can be thought of as 6 copies of the 4th triangular
number, but where we subtract 6 x 3 (the second triangular number) because we
double count three of the internal points six times. We also subtract 6 as we double
count each vertex.

The outside star edge of S5 can be thought of as 6 copies of the 5th triangular
number, but where we subtract 6 x 6 (the third triangular number) because we
double count six of the internal points six times. We also subtract 6 as we double
count each vertex.

Therefore we can form a formula for the outside star:

6(0.5n2 + 0.5n) 6(0.5(n-2)2 + 0.5(n-2)) 6
which simplifies to:

12(n -1)

29
We can now put this into our recurrence relationship:
S1 = 1
S2 = 1 + 12(n -1)
S3 = 1 + 12((n-1) -1) + 12(n -1)
S4 = 1 + 12((n-2) -1) + 12((n-1) -1) + 12(n -1)
Note that when we substituted the nth term formula for S2 into S3 we had to shift the
n value to become n-1 as we were now on the 3rd term rather than 2nd term.
So:
S1 = 1
S2 = 1 + 12(n -1)
S3 = 1 + 12(n-1) + 12(n-2)
S4 = 1 + 12(n-1) + 12(n-2) + 12(n-3)
So:
S1 = 1 + 0
S2 = 1 + 12
S3 = 1 + 12+ 24
S4 = 1 + 12 + 24 + 36
So using the formula for the sum of an arithmetic Sn = 0.5n(a1 + an) we have
Sn = 1 + 0.5(n-1)(12 + 12(n-1))
Sn = 6n2 6n + 1
Quite a bit more convoluted but also more interesting, and also more clearly
demonstrating how the sequence is generated.

Generalising for p-stellar numbers

We can then generalise to find stellar number formulae for different numbers of
vertices. For example the 5-stellar numbers pictured above have the formula 5n2
5n + 1. In fact the p-stellar numbers will have the formula pn2 pn + 1.
We can prove this by using the same recurrence relationship before:
S1
S2 = S1 + outside star edge
S3 = S2 + outside star edge
S4 = S3 + outside star edge

and by noting that the outside star edge is found in the same way as before for a p-
stellar shape only this time we subtract p for the number of vertices counted
twice. This gives:

p(0.5n2 + 0.5n) p(0.5(n-2)2 + 0.5(n-2)) p

30
which simplifies to

2p(n-1)

and so substituting this into our recurrence formula:

S1 = 1
S2 = 1 + 2p(n-2)
S3 = 1 + 2p(n-2) + 2p(n-1)
S4 = 1 + 2p(n-3) + 2p(n-2) + 2p(n-1)

We have the same pattern as before an arithmetic series in terms of 2p, and using
Sn = 0.5n(a1 + an) we have:

Sn= 1 + 0.5(n-1)(2p + 2p(n-1) )

Sn = pn2 pn + 1

Therefore, although our second method was slower, it allowed us to spot the pattern
in the progression and this then led very quickly to a general formula for the p-
stellar numbers.

31
Making Music With Sine Waves

Sine and cosine waves are incredibly important for understanding all sorts of waves
in physics. Musical notes can be thought of in terms of sine curves where we have
the basic formula:

y = sin(bt)

where t is measured in seconds. b is then connected to the period of the function by

the formula period = 2/b.

When modeling sound waves we normally work in Hertz where Hertz just means
full cycles (periods) per second. This is also called the frequency. Sine waves with
different Hertz values will each have a distinct sound so we can cycle through
scales in music through sine waves of different periods.

For example the sine wave for 20Hz is:

20Hz means 20 periods per second (i.e 1 period per 1/20 second) so we can find the
equivalent sine wave by using

period = 2/b.
1/20 = 2/b.
b = 40

So, 20Hz is modeled by y = sin(40t)

You can plot this graph using Wolfram Alpha, and then play the sound file to hear
what 20Hz sounds like. 20Hz is regarded as the lower range of hearing spectrum for
adults and is a very low bass sound.

The middle C on a piano is modeled with a wave of 261.626Hz. This gives the wave

32
which has the equation, y = sin(1643.84t). Again you can listen to this sound file
on Wolfram Alpha.

At the top end of the sound spectrum for adults is around 16,000
20,000Hz. Babies have a ability to hear higher pitched sounds, and we gradually
lose this higher range with age. This is the sine wave for 20,000Hz:

which has the equation, y = sin(40,000t). See if you can hear this file warning its
a bit painful!

As well as sound waves, the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves,
microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x rays and gamma rays) can also be
thought of in terms of waves of different frequencies. So, modelling waves using trig
graphs is an essential part of understanding the physical world.

33
Modelling for Zombies

Some mathematicians at the University of Ottawa have just released a paper looking
at the mathematics behind a zombie apocalypse. What are the best strategies for
avoiding being eaten? How quickly would zombies spread through the
population? This may seem a little silly as zombies arent real but actually the
mathematics behind how diseases spread through a population is very useful and,
well, zombies are as good a way as any to introduce this.

The graphic above from the paper shows how zombie movement can be
modelled. Given that zombies randomly move around, and any bumping would lead
to a tendency towards finding space, they are modelled in the same way that we
model the diffusion of gas. If you start with a small concentrated number of
particles they will spread out to fill the given space like shown above.

Diffusion can be modelled by the diffusion equation above. We have:

t: time (in specified units)

x: position of the x axis.
w: the density of zombies at time t and point x. We could also write w(t,x) in
function notation.
a: a is a constant.
The curly d in the equation means the partial differential. This works the same as
normal differentiation but when we differentiate we are only interested in

34
differentiating the denominator letter and act as though all other letters are
constants.

This is easier to show with an example.

z = 3xy2
The partial differential of z with respect to x is 3y2
The partial differential of z with respect to y is 6xy

So, going back to our diffusion equation, we need to find a function w(x,t) which
satisfies this equation and then we can use this function to model the spread of
zombies through an area. There are lots of different solutions to this equation (see a
list here). One of the easiest is:

w(x,t) = A(x2 + 2at) + B

where we have introduced 2 new constants, A and B.
We can check that this works by finding the left handside and right handside of the
diffusion equation:

Therefore as the LHS and RHS are equal, the diffusion equation is satisfied.
Therefore we have the following zombie density model:

w(x,t) = A(x2 + 2at) + B

this will tell us at point x and time t what the zombie density is. We would need
particular values to then find A, B and a. For example, we can restrict x between 0
and 1 and t between 1 and 5, then set A = -1, B = 21, a = 2 to give:

w(x,t) = (-x2 + -4t) + 21

This begins to fit the behavior we want at any fixed point x the density will
decrease with time, and as we move further away from the initial point (x = 0) we
have lower density. This is only very rough however.

A more complicated solution to the diffusion equation is given above. In this

equation Z(x,t) stands for the density of zombies at point x and time t. Z 0 stands for
the initial zombie density where all zombies are starting at the same point (x
between 0 and 1). L stands for the edge of the domain. This is a 1 dimensional
model where zombies only travel in a straight line. For modelling purposes, this
would be somewhat equivalent to being trapped in a 50 metre by 1 metre square
fenced area with (0,0) as the bottom left corner of the fence. L would be 50 in this

35
case, and all zombies would initially be in the 1 metre square which went through
the origin.

Luckily as t gets large this equation can be approximated by:

Which means that after a long length of time our 50 metre square fenced area will
have an equal density of zombies throughout. If we started with 100 zombies in our
initial 1 metre square area (say emerging from a tomb), then with Z0 = 100 and with
L = 50 we would have an average density of 100/2 = 2 zombies per metre
squared. In other words zombies would be evenly spaced out across all available
space.

So, what advice can you take from this when faced with a zombie apocalypse? Well if
zombies move according to diffusion principles then initially you have a good
advantage to outrun them after-all they will be moving randomly and you will be
running linearly as far away as possible. That will give you some time to prepare
your defences for when the zombies finally reach you. As long as you get far enough
away, when they do reach your corner their density will be low and therefore much
easier to fight.

36
Modelling for Zombies II

We have previously looked at how the paper from mathematicians from Ottawa
University discuss the mathematics behind surviving the zombie apocalypse and
how the mathematics used has many other modelling applications for
understanding the spread of disease and the diffusion of gases. In the previous post
we saw how the zombie diffusion rate could be predicted by the formula:

In this equation Z(x,t) stands for the density of zombies at point x and time t. Z0
stands for the initial zombie density where all zombies are starting at the same
point (x between 0 and 1). L stands for the edge of the domain. This is a 1
dimensional model where zombies only travel in a straight line.

For modelling purposes, this would be somewhat equivalent to being trapped in a 50

metre by 1 metre square fenced area with (0,0) as the bottom left corner of the
fence. L would be 50 in this case, and all zombies would initially be in the 1 metre
square which went through the origin.

We saw that as the time, t gets large this equation can be approximated by:

Which means that after a long length of time our 50 metre square fenced area will
have an equal density of zombies throughout. If we started with 100 zombies in our
initial 1 metre square area (say emerging from a tomb), then Z0 = 100 and with L =
50 we would have an average density of 100/2 = 2 zombies per metre squared.

When will the zombies arrive?

So, say you have taken the previous posts advice and run as far away as
possible. So, youre at the edge of the 50 metre long fence. The next question to
ask therefore, how long before the zombies reach you? To answer this we need to
solve the initial equation Z(x,t) to find t when x = 50 and Z(50,t) = 1.

We solve to find Z(50,t) = 1 because this represents the time t when there is a
density of 1 zombie at distance 50 metres from the origin. In other words when a
zombie is standing where you are now! Solving this would be pretty tough, so we do
what mathematicians like to do, and take an approximation. This approximate
solution for t is given by:

37
where L is the distance were standing away (50 metres in this case) and D is the
diffusion rate. D can be altered to affect the speed of the zombies. In the study
they set D as 100 which is claimed to be consistent with a slow, shuffling zombie
walk.

Therefore the time the zombies will take to arrive is approximately t = 0.32(50)2/100
= 8 minutes. If we are a slightly further distance away (say we are trapped along a
100 metre fence) then the zombies will arrive in approximately t = 0.32(100)2/100 =
32 minutes.

Fight or flight?

Fighting (say by lobbing missiles at the oncoming hordes) would slow the diffusion
rate D, but would probably be less effective than running as the time is rapidly
increased by the L2 factor. Lets look at a scenario to compare:

You are 20 metres from the zombies. You can decide to spend 1 minute running an
extra 30 metres away (youre not in good shape) to the edge of the fence (no rocks
here) or can spend your time lobbing rocks with your home-made catapult to slow
the advance. Which scenario makes more sense?

Scenario 1

You get to the edge of the fence in 1 minute. The zombies will get to the edge of the
fence in t = 0.32(50)2/100 = 8 minutes. You therefore have an additional 7 minutes
to sit down, relax, and enjoy your last few moments before the zombies arrive.

Scenario 2

You successfully manage to slow the diffusion rate to D = 50 as the zombies are
slowed by your sharp-shooting. The zombies will arrive in 0.32(20)2/50 = 2.6
minutes. If only youd paid more attention in maths class.

38
The Chinese Postman Problem

There is a fantastic pdf resource from Suffolk Maths which goes into a lot of detail on
this topic and I will base my post on their resource. Visit their site for a more in-
depth treatment.

The Chinese Postman Problem was first posed by a Chinese mathematician in

1962. It involved trying to calculate how a postman could best choose his route so
as to mimise his time. This is the problem that Kuan Mei-Ko tried to solve:

How could a postman visit every letter on the graph in the shortest possible time?
Solving this requires using a branch of mathematics called graph theory, created by
Leonard Euler. This mathematics looks to reduce problems to network graphs like
that shown above. Before we can solve this we need to understand some
terminology:

Above we have 3 graphs. A graph which can be drawn without taking the pen off
the paper or retracing any steps is called traversable (and has a Euler trail). Graph
1 is not traversable. Graph 2 is traversable as long as you start at either A or D, and
Graph 3 is traversable from any point that you start. It turns out that what dictates
whether a graph is traversable or not is the order of their vertices.

Looking at each letter we count the number of lines at the vertex. This is the
order. For graph 1 we have 3 lines from A so A has an order of 3. All the vertices
on graph 1 have an order of 3. For graph 2 we have the orders (from A, B, C, D, E
in turn) 3, 4, 4, 3, 2. For graph 3 we have the orders 4,4,4,4,2,2.

39
This allows us to arrive at a rule for working out if a graph is traversable.
If all orders are even then a graph is traversable. If there are 2 odd vertices then
we can find a traversable graph by starting at one of the odd vertices and finishing
at the other. We need therefore to pair up any odd vertices on the graph.

Next we need to understand how to pair the odd vertices. For example if I have 2
odd vertices, they can only be paired in one way. If I have 4 vertices (say A,B,C,D)
they can be paired in 3 different ways (either AB and CD or AC and BD or AD and
BC) . The general term rule to calculate how many ways n odd vertices can be
paired up is (n-1) x (n-3) x (n-5) x 1.

So now we are ready to actually solve the Chinese Postman Problem. Here is the
algorithm:

So, we can now apply this to the Chinese Postman Problem below:

Step 1: We can see that the only odd vertices are A and H.
Step 2: We can only pair these one way (AH)
Step 3 and 4: The shortest way to get from A to H is ABFH which is length 160. This
is shown below:

40
 Step 5 and 6: The total distance along all the lines in the initial diagram is
840m. We add our figure of 160m to this. Therefore the optimum (minimum)
distance it is possible to complete the route is 1000m.

Step 7: We now need to find a route of distance 1000m which includes the loop
ABFH (or in reverse) which starts and finishes at one of the odd vertices. One
solution provided by Suffolk Maths is ADCGHCABDFBEFHFBA. There are others!

41
Analytic Continuation and the Riemann Zeta Function

Analytic Continuation is a very important mathematical technique which allows us to

extend the domain of functions. It is essential in higher level mathematics and
physics and leads to some remarkable results.

For example, by using analytic continuation we can prove that the sum of the natural
numbers (1 + 2 + 3 + .) is -1/12. Results dont get more surprising than that!

Analytic continuation concerns functions of the form:

f(z) where z is a complex number and f(z) is (complex) differentiable.

Remember complex numbers are of the form a + bi and can be thought of as

coordinate points in an x,y axis. For the purposes of this post we will only look at
real values of z (real numbers are still a subset of complex numbers).

The idea of analytic continuation is to take an original function with a restricted

domain, then to find another function which is the same within that restricted
domain, but also is valid outside that domain. This sounds very complicated but
lets look at a couple of examples:

This is a function which is defined for all values except for z = -1. When z = -1 we
have zero on the denominator so the function doesnt exist. However we can write a
new function:

Now, g(z) = f(z) for all z when z is not -1, but g(z) also exists when z = -1.

Therefore we can regard g(z) as the analytic continuation of f(z), and we have
extended the domain of f(z) from all values except -1, to all values of z.

A more interesting example is the following:

This is the infinite series:

This function is analytic (complex differentiable) only when -1 < z< 1. (Dont

42
worry about how this is calculated though it is related to the domain of
convergence). Therefore this is our restricted domain.

But we can notice that the sum of a geometric sequence formula allows us to
calculate f(z) in a different way:

Here we have used the formula for summing a geometric, with the first term 1 and
common ratio z.

Therefore we could write:

f(z) = g(z) when -1 < z< 1 , but g(z) is complex differentiable for all values except
for z = 1 (when the denominator is 0). Therefore g(z) is the analytic continuation of
f(z) from -1 < z< 1 to all values of z except z = 1.

One example of analytic continuation that Ive written about before is the Riemann
Sphere. This extends by analytic continuation the complex plane into the complex
plane plus infinity.

Another example is used in showing that the sum of natural numbers is -1/12. There
are a few different methods to show this some discussed previously here. Im
going to try and talk through another proof of this result. Its a bit difficult, but try
and understand the general method!

43
The proof revolves around the Riemann Zeta function, (Riemann is pictured above).
This is defined as:

This can also be written as:

So, if we want to find the sum of 1 + 2 + 3 then we need to substitute z = -1 into

the above summation. However this formula for the zeta function is only valid for the
domain z > 1, so we first need to extend the function through analytic continuation.
Through analytic continuation (where we extend the domain from z > 1 to all
complex numbers apart from -1) we can rewrite the zeta function as:

and substituting z = 2 into this formula, so that we end up with zeta(-1) we get:

Now,

Therefore

We have proved that 1 + 2 + 3 = -1/12 !

44
How Infectious is Ebola?

Ebola is the latest virus to warrant global fears over a pandemic which infects large
numbers of people. Throughout history we have seen pandemic diseases such as
the Black Death in Middle Ages Europe and the Spanish Flu at the beginning of the
20th century. More recently we have seen HIV responsible for millions of deaths. In
the last few years there have been scares over bird flu and SARS yet neither fully
developed into a major global health problem. So, how contagious is Ebola, and how
can we use mathematics to predict its spread?

The basic model is based on the SIR model. The SIR model looks at how much of
the population is susceptible to infection, how many of these go on to become
infectious, and how many of these go on to recover (and in what
timeframe). However given the nature of modelling diseases with very high
mortality rates like Ebola, for our Ebola model the SIR stands for Susceptible,
Infectious and Dead.

Another important parameter is R0, this is defined as how many people an infectious
person will pass on their infection to in a totally susceptible population. Some of the
R0 values for different diseases are shown above. Studies into Ebola estimate the R0
value at somewhere between 1.7 and 8.6. Therefore whilst Ebola is contagious, it is
nowhere near as contagious as a fully airbourne disease like measles.

45
The Guardian datablog have an excellent graphic to show the contagiousness relative
to deadliness of different diseases. You can notice that we have nothing in the top
right hand corner (very deadly and very contagious). This is just as well as that
could be enough to seriously dent the human population. Most diseases we worry
about fall into 2 categories contagious and not very deadly or not very contagious
and deadly. Ebola is in the latter category.

The equations above represent a SIR (susceptible, infectious, dead) model which can
be used to model the spread of Ebola.

dS/dt represents the rate of change of those who are susceptible to the illness with
respect to time. dI/dt represents the rate of change of those who are infected with
respect to time. dR/dt represents the rate of change of those who have died with
respect to time.

For example, if dI/dt is high then the number of people becoming infected is rapidly
increasing. When dI/dt is zero then there is no change in the numbers of people
becoming infected (number of infections remain steady). When dI/dt is negative
then the numbers of people becoming infected is decreasing.

The constants and are chosen depending on the type of disease being
modelled. represents the contact rate which is how likely someone will get the
disease when in contact with someone who is ill. is the recovery rate which is how
quickly people recover (and become immune.

N is the total population

is the per capita death rate (Calculated by = 1/(duration of illness) )
N lets take as the population of Sierra Leone (6 million)

46
In the case of Ebola we have the following estimated values:

between 1/4 and 1/10 (because it takes an infected person between 4 and 10 days
to die). Lets take it as 1/7 0.14
as approximately 0.6
N lets take as the population of Sierra Leone (6 million)

Therefore our 3 equations for rates of change become:

dS/dt = -0.6 I S/6,000,000

dI/dt = 0.6 I S/6,000,000 0.14 I
dR/dt = 0.14 I

Unfortunately these equations are very difficult to solve but luckily we can use a
computer program to plot what happens. We need to assign starting values for S, I
and R the numbers of people susceptible, infectious and dead. We have 6 million
people in Sierra Leone, and currently around 8000 reported cases of Ebola. If we
assume all 6 million are susceptible, then putting this all into the program gives the
following outcome:

This graph is pretty incredible though it clearly shows some of our assumptions
were wrong! Given a starting point of 6 million people all susceptible to Ebola, and
8000 infectious individuals, then within 20 days the population would have crashed
from 6 million to less than 1 million and within 60 days you would have nearly
everyone dead.
Clearly therefore this graph is very sensitive to our initial assumed values. Say for
example Ebola was less contagious than we previous assumed and so we had =
0.15 with the other values the same. Then we get the following:

47
This graph is very drastically different to the last one you have infections
remaining low though this would still be enough to see a big population drop over
the 3 years of the simulation.
Modelling disease outbreaks with real accuracy is therefore an incredibly important
job for mathematicians. Understanding how diseases spread and how fast they can
spread through populations is essential to developing effective medical strategies to
minimise deaths. If you want to save lives maybe you should become a
mathematician rather than a doctor!

48
Zenos Paradox Achilles and the Tortoise

This is a very famous paradox from the Greek philosopher Zeno who argued that a
runner (Achilles) who constantly halved the distance between himself and a
tortoise would never actually catch the tortoise.

There are two slightly different versions to this paradox. The first version has the
tortoise as stationary, and Achilles as constantly halving the distance, but never
reaching the tortoise (technically this is called the dichotomy paradox). The second
version is where Achilles always manages to run to the point where the tortoise was
previously, but by the time he reaches that point the tortoise has moved a little bit
further away.

Dichotomy Paradox

The first version we can think of as follows:

Say the tortoise is 2 metres away from Achilles. Initially Achilles halves this distance
by travelling 1 metre. He halves this distance again by travelling a further 1/2
metre. Halving again he is now 1/4 metres away. This process is infinite, and so
Zeno argued that in a finite length of time you would never actually reach the
tortoise. Mathematically we can express this idea as an infinite summation of the
distances travelled each time:

1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8

Now, this is actually a geometric series which has first term a = 1 and common
ratio r = 1/2. Therefore we can use the infinite summation formula for a geometric
series (which was derived about 2000 years after Zeno!):

sum = a/(1-r)
sum = 1/(1-0.5)
sum = 2

49
This shows that the summation does in fact converge and so Achilles would
actually reach the tortoise that remained 2 metres away. There is still however
something of a sleight of hand being employed here however given an infinite
length of time we have shown that Achilles would reach the tortoise, but what about
reaching the tortoise in a finite length of time? Well, as the distances get ever
smaller, the time required to traverse them also gets ever closer to zero, so we can
say that as the distance converges to 2 metres, the time taken will also converge to
a finite number.

There is an alternative method to showing that this is a convergent series:

S = 1+ 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 +

0.5S = 1/2+ 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 +
S 0.5S = 1
0.5S = 1
S=2
Here we notice that in doing S 0.5S all the terms will cancel out except the first
one.

Achilles and the Tortoise

The second version also makes use of geometric series. If we say that the tortoise
has been given a 10 m head start, and that whilst the tortoise runs at 1 m/s, Achilles
runs at 10 m/s, we can try to calculate when Achilles would catch the tortoise. So in
the first instance, Achilles runs to where the tortoise was (10 metres away). But
because the tortoise runs at 1/10th the speed of Achilles, he is now a further 1m
away. So, in the second instance, Achilles now runs to where the tortoise now is (a
further 1 metre). But the tortoise has now moved 0.1 metres further away. And so
on to infinity.

This is represented by a geometric series:

10 + 1 + 0.1 + 0.01

50
Which has first time a = 10 and common ratio r = 0.1. So using the same formula
as before:

sum = a/(1-r)
sum = 10/(1-0.1)
sum = 11.11m

So, again we can show that because this geometric series converges to a finite value
(11.11), then after a finite time Achilles will indeed catch the tortoise (11.11m away
from where Achilles started from).

We often think of mathematics and philosophy as completely distinct subjects one

based on empirical measurement, the other on thought processes but back in the
day of the Greeks there was no such distinction. The resolution of Zenos paradox
by use of calculus and limits to infinity some 2000 years after it was first posed is a
nice reminder of the power of mathematics in solving problems across a wide range
of disciplines.

The Chess Board Problem

div>
The chess board problem is nothing to do with Zeno (it was first recorded about
1000 years ago) but is nevertheless another interesting example of the power of
geometric series. It is explained in the video above. If I put 1 grain of rice on the
first square of a chess board, 2 grains of rice on the second square, 4 grains on the
third square, how much rice in total will be on the chess board by the time I finish
the 64th square?

The mathematical series will be:

1+ 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 +
So a = 1 and r = 2
Sum = a(1-r64)/(1-r)
Sum = (1-264)/(1-2)
Sum = 264 -1
Sum = 18, 446,744, 073, 709, 551, 615

This is such a large number that, if stretched from end to end the rice would reach
all the way to the star Alpha Centura and back 2 times. (Interestingly this
number, 264 -1 is also a special type of prime number called a Mersenne
Prime. These are prime numbers of the form 2n -1).

51
Batman and Superman Maths

Wolfram Alpha is an incredibly powerful mathematical tool which has been

developed to allow both complex calculations and data analysis. It is able to
generate images like that shown above, of the Batman logo. Whats really
impressive however is that you can see the underlying graph input that would
generate this image:

At first glance this look indecipherable but we can actually understand this a little
better by breaking these inequalities down and looking at the individually.

The first inequality defines the area inside an ellipse. All ellipses have a general
formula:

In our inequality, the a simply stands for an arbitrary constant (because the Batman
logo has no scale). To keep things simple we can set a = 1. This gives an equation:

52
which generates the ellipse:

When we now make this the inequality:

Then this simply has the effect of shading in the area contained within the
ellipse. So, comparing this to the original Batman shape we can see that the ellipse
we have drawn forms the wings of the logo.
Next, lets look at the next inequality:

Which, if we again choose a = 1 for simplicity, we will get

when the part of this graph which is greater or equal to 4.

Im not going to go through each part as that would take too long! Lets look at
one more inequality though:

This will generate the part of the graph that looks like:

53
This will form part of the Batman logo cape.

Superman Logo

Now if you thought that was hard, have a look at the inequalities needed for the
Superman logo above:

Now this really is almost indecipherable! I can at least explain what the min(a,b)
means. For example, say we had:

y = min(cosx,sinx)

This would simply mean that for any x value, I would find out what cosx was equal
to, find out what sinx was equal to, and then plot the smallest value as my y
value. For example, when x = 0, I would have cos(0) = 1 and sin(0) = 0. So I

54
choose my y value as 0 when x = 0. Plotting this graph would give:

Which is an interesting periodic function that shares some of the features of the
regular trig graphs. Anyway, the real Superman inequality is much harder than this
and demonstrates just how powerful Wolfram Alpha is.

55
Fourier Transform

The Fourier Transform and the associated Fourier series is one of the most important
mathematical tools in physics. Physicist Lord Kelvin remarked in 1867:

Fouriers theorem is not only one of the most beautiful results of modern analysis,
but it may be said to furnish an indispensable instrument in the treatment of nearly
every recondite question in modern physics.

The Fourier Transform deals with time based waves and these are one of the
fundamental building blocks of the natural world. Sound, light, gravity, radio signals,
Earthquakes and digital compression are just some of the phenomena that can be
understood through waves. Its not an exaggeration therefore to see the study of
waves as one of the most important applications of mathematics in our modern life.
Here are some real life applications in a wide range of fields:

JPEG picture and MP3 sound compression to allow data to reduced in size.
Analysing DNA sequences to allow identification of specific regions of genetic code
Apps like Shazam which can recognise a song from a sample of music
Processing mobile phone network data and WIFI data
Signal processing in everything from acoustic guitar amps or electrical currents
through capacitors
Radio telescopes used to construct images of the night sky
Buildings natural frequencies architects can design buildings to better withstand
earthquakes.
Medical imaging such as MRI scans

There are many more applications this Guardian article is a good introduction to
some others.

So, what is the Fourier Transform? It takes a graph like the graph f(t) = cos(at)
below:

56
and transforms it into:

From the above cosine graph we can see that it is periodic time based function. Time
is plotted on the x axis, and this graph will tell us the value of f(t) at any given time.
The graph below with 2 spikes represents this same information in a different way. It
shows the frequency (plotted on the x axis) of the cosine graph. Now the frequency
of a function measures how many times it repeats per second. So for a graph f(t) =
cos(at) it can be calculated as the inverse of the period. The period of cos(at) is
2pi/a so it has a frequency of a/2pi.

Therefore the frequency graph for cos(ax) will have spikes at a/2pi and -a/2pi.
But how does this new representation help us? Well most real life waves are much
more complicated than simple sine or cosine waves like this trumpet sound wave
below:

But the remarkable thing is that every continuous wave can be modelled as the sum
of sine and cosine waves. So we can break-down the very complicated wave above
into (say) cos(x) + sin(2x) + 2cos(4x) . This new representation would be much
easier to work with mathematically.

The way to find out what these constituent sine and cosine waves are that make up
a complicated wave is to use the Fourier Transform. By transforming a function into
one which shows the frequency peaks we can work out what the sine and cosine
parts are for that function.

57
For example, this transformed graph above would show which frequency sine and
cosine functions to use to model our original function. Each peak represents a sine or
cosine function of a specific frequency. Add them all together and we have our
function.

The maths behind this does get a little complicated. Ill try and talk through the
method using the function f(t) = cos(at).

So, the function we want to break down into its constituent cosine and sine waves is
cos(at). Now, obviously this function can be represented just with cos(at) but this
is a good demonstration of how to use the maths for the Fourier Transform. We
already know that this function has a frequency of a/2pi so lets see if we can find
this frequency using the Transform.

This is the formula for the Fourier Transform. We simply replace the f(t) with the
function we want to transform then integrate.

To make this easier we use the exponential formula for cosine. When we have f(t) =
cos(at) we can rewrite this as the function above in terms of exponential terms.

We substitute this version of f(t) into the formula.

Next we multiply out the exponential terms in the bracket (remember the laws of
indices), and then split the integral into 2 parts. The reason we have grouped the
powers in this way is because of the following step.

This is the delta function which as you can see is very closely related to the
integrals we have. Multiplying both sides by pi will get the integral in the correct
form. The delta function is a function which is zero for all values apart from when the

58
domain is zero.

So, the integral can be simplified as this above.

So, our function F will be zero for all values except when the delta function is zero.
This gives use the above equations.

Therefore solving these equations we get an answer for the frequency of the graph.

This frequency agrees with the frequency we already expected to find for cos(at).
A slightly more complicated example would be to follow the same process but this
time with the function f(t) = cos(at) + cos(bt). If the Fourier transform works
correctly it should recognise that this function is composed of one cosine function
with frequency a/2pi and another cosine function of b/2pi. If we follow through
exactly the same method as above (we can in effect split the function into cos(at)
and cos(bt) and do both separately), we should get:

This therefore is zero for all values except for when we have frequencies of a/2pi and
b/2pi. So the Fourier Transform has correctly identified the constituent parts of our
function.

If you want to read more about Fourier Transforms, then the Better Explained article
is an excellent start.

59
Non Euclidean Geometry An Introduction

It wouldnt be an exaggeration to describe the development of non-Euclidean

geometry in the 19th Century as one of the most profound mathematical
achievements of the last 2000 years. Ever since Euclid (c. 330-275BC) included in
his geometrical proofs an assumption (postulate) about parallel lines,
mathematicians had been trying to prove that this assumption was true. In the
1800s however, mathematicians including Gauss started to wonder what would
happen if this assumption was false and along the way they discovered a whole
new branch of mathematics. A mathematics where there is an absolute measure of
distance, where straight lines can be curved and where angles in triangles dont add
up to 180 degrees. They discovered non-Euclidean geometry.

Euclids parallel postulate (5th postulate)

Euclid was a Greek mathematician and one of the most influential men ever to
live. Through his collection of books, Elements, he created the foundations of
geometry as a mathematical subject. Anyone who studies geometry at secondary
school will still be using results that directly stem from Euclids Elements that
angles in triangles add up to 180 degrees, that alternate angles are equal, the circle
theorems, how to construct line and angle bisectors. Indeed you might find it
slightly depressing that you were doing nothing more than re-learn mathematics well
understood over 2000 years ago!

All of Euclids results were based on rigorous deductive mathematical proof if A

was true, and A implied B, then B was also true. However Euclid did need to make
use of a small number of definitions (such as the definition of a line, point, parallel,
right angle) before he could begin his first book He also needed a small number of
postulates (assumptions given without proof) such as: (It is possible) to draw a
line between 2 points and All right angles are equal

Now the first 4 of these postulates are relatively uncontroversial in being assumed as
true. The 5th however drew the attention of mathematicians for centuries as they
struggled in vain to prove it. It is:

If a line crossing two other lines makes the interior angles on the same side less
than two right angles, then these two lines will meet on that side when extended far
enough.

60
This might look a little complicated, but is made a little easier with the help of the
sketch above. We have the line L crossing lines L1 and L2, and we have the angles
A and B such that A + B is less than 180 degrees. Therefore we have the lines L1
and L2 intersecting. Lines which are not parallel will therefore intersect.
Euclids postulate can be restated in simpler (though not quite logically equivalent
language) as:

At most one line can be drawn through any point not on a given line parallel to the
given line in a plane.

In other words, if you have a given line (l) and a point (P), then there is only 1 line
you can draw which is parallel to the given line and through the point (m).
Both of these versions do seem pretty self-evident, but equally there seems no
reason why they should simply be assumed to be true. Surely they can actually be
proved? Well, mathematicians spent the best part of 2000 years trying without
success to do so.

Why is the 5th postulate so important?

Because Euclids proofs in Elements were deductive in nature, that means that if the
5th postulate was false, then all the subsequent proofs based on this assumption
would have to be thrown out. Most mathematicians working on the problem did in
fact believe it was true but were keen to actually prove it.
As an example, the 5th postulate can be used to prove that the angles in a triangle
add up to 180 degrees.

61
The sketch above shows that if A + B are less than 180 degrees the lines will
intersect. Therefore because of symmetry (if one pair is more than 180 degrees,
then other side will have a pair less than 180 degrees), a pair of parallel lines will
have A + B = 180. This gives us:

This is the familiar diagram you learn at school with alternate and corresponding
angles. If we accept the diagram above as true, we can proceed with proving that
the angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees.

Once, we know that the two red angles are equal and the two green angles are
equal, then we can use the fact that angles on a straight line add to 180 degrees to
conclude that the angles in a triangle add to 180 degrees. But it needs the parallel
postulate to be true!

In fact there are geometries in which the parallel postulate is not true and so we
can indeed have triangles whose angles dont add to 180 degrees. More on this in
the next post.

62
Non Euclidean Geometry V Pseudospheres and other amazing shapes

Non Euclidean geometry takes place on a number of weird and wonderful

shapes. Remember, one of fundamental questions mathematicians investigating the
parallel postulate were asking was how many degrees would a triangle have in that
geometry- and it turns out that this question can be answered depending on
something called Gaussian curvature.

Gaussian curvature measures the nature of the curvature of a 3 dimensional

shape. The way to calculate it is to take a point on a surface, draw a pair of lines at
right angles to each other, and note the direction of their curvature. If both curve
down or both curve up, then the surface has positive curvature. If one line curves
up and the other down, then the surface has negative curvature. If at least one of
the lines is flat then the surface has no curvature.

Positive curvature:

A sphere is an example of a shape with constant positive curvature that means the
curvature at every point is the same.

Negative curvature:

The pseudosphere is a shape which is in some respects the opposite of a sphere

(hence the name pseudo-sphere). This shape has a constant negative curvature. It
is formed by a surface of revolution of a called called a tractrix.

Zero curvature:

63
It might be surprising at first to find that the cylinder is a shape is one which is
classified as having zero curvature. But one of the lines drawn on it will always be
flat hence we have zero curvature. We can think of the cylinder as analogous to
the flat plane because we could unravel the cylinder without bending or stretching
it, and achieve a flat plane.

So, what is the difference between the geometries of the 3 types of shapes?

Parallel lines

Firstly, given a line m and a point p not on m, how many lines parallel to m through
p can be drawn on each type of shape?

A shape with positive curvature has no such lines and so has no parallel lines. A
shape with negative curvature has many such lines and so has many parallel lines
through the same point. A shape with no curvature follows our normal Euclidean
rules and has a single parallel line through a point.

Sums of angles in a triangle and other facts

Triangles on shapes with positive curvature have angles which add to more than 180
degrees. Triangles on shapes with negative curvature have angles which add to less
than 180 degrees. Triangles on shapes with no curvature are our familiar 180
degree types. Pythagoras theorem no longer holds, and circles no longer have pi as
a ratio of their circumference and diameter outside of non-curved space.

64
Torus
The torus is a really interesting mathematical shape basically a donut shape, which
has the property of of having variable Gaussian curvature. Some parts of the
surface has positive curvature, others zero, others negative.

The blue parts of the torus above have positive curvature, the red parts negative and
the top grey band has zero curvature. If our 3 dimensional space was like the
surface areas of a 4 dimensional torus, then triangles would have different angle
sums depending on where we were on the torus surface. This is actually one of the
current theories as to the shape of the universe.

Mobius Strip and Klein Bottle

These are two more bizarre shapes with strange properties. The Mobius strip only
has one side if you start anywhere on its surface and follow the curvature round
you will eventually return to the same place having travelled on every part of the
surface.

The Klein bottle is in someways a 3D version of the Mobius strip and even though
it exists in 3 dimensions, to make a true one you need to fold through the 4th
dimension.

65
The shape of the universe

OK, so this starts to get quite esoteric why is knowing the geometry and
mathematics of all these strange shapes actually useful? Cant we just stick to good
old flat-plane Euclidean geometry? Well, on a fundamental level non-Euclidean
geometry is at the heart of one of the most important questions in mankinds history
just what is the universe?

At the heart of understanding the universe is the question of the shape of the
universe. Does it have positive curvature, negative curvature, or is it flat? Is it like
a torus, a sphere, a saddle or something else completely? These questions will help
determine if the universe is truly infinite or perhaps a bounded loop in which if
you travelled far enough in one direction you would return to where you had set off
from. It will also help determine what will happen to universe will it keep
expanding? Slow down and stop, or crunch back in on itself? You can read more on
these questions here.

66
The Telephone Numbers Graph Theory

The telephone numbers are the following sequence:

1, 1, 2, 4, 10, 26, 76, 232, 764, 2620, 9496

(where we start from n=0).

This pattern describes the total number of ways which a telephone exchange with n
telephones can place a connection between pairs of people.
To illustrate this idea, the graph below is for n=4. This is when we have 10
telephones:

Each red line represents a connection. So the first diagram is for when we have no
connections (this is counted in our sequence). The next five diagrams all show a
single connection between a pair of phones. The last three diagrams show how we
could have 2 pairs of telephones connected at the same time. Therefore the 4th
telephone number is 10. These numbers get very large, very quickly.

67
Finding a recursive formula

The formula is given by the recursive relationship:

T(n) = T(n-1) + (n-1)T(n-2)

This means that to find (say) the 5th telephone number we do the following:

T(5) = T(5-1) + (5-1)T(5-2)

T(5) = T(4) + (4)T(3)
T(5) = 10 + (4)4
T(5) = 26

This is a quick way to work out the next term, as long as we have already calculated
the previous terms.
Finding an nth term formula
The telephone numbers can be calculated using the nth term formula:

This is going to be pretty hard to derive! I suppose the first step would start by
working out the total number of connections possible between n phones and this
will be the same as the graphs below:

These clearly follow the same pattern as the triangular numbers which is 0.5(n +n)
when we start with n = 1. We can also think of this as n choose 2 because this
gives us all the ways of linking 2 telephones from n possibilities. Therefore n choose
2 also generates the triangular numbers.

68
But then you would have to work out all the permutations which were allowed not
easy!

Anyway, as an example of how to use the formula to calculate the telephone

numbers, say we wanted to find the 5th number:
We have n = 5. The summation will be from k = 0 and k = 2 (as 5/2 is not an
integer).

Therefore T(5) = 5!/(20(5-0)!0!) + 5!/(21(5-2)!1!) + 5!/(22(5-4)!2!)

T(5) = 1 + 10 + 15 = 26.

Finding telephone numbers through calculus

Interestingly we can also find the telephone numbers by using the function:
y = e0.5x^2+x

and the nth telephone number (starting from n = 1) is given by the nth derivative
when x = 0.

For example,

So when x = 0, the third derivative is 4. Therefore the 3rd telephone number is 4.

The fifth derivative of the function is:

So, when x =0 the fifth derivative is 26. Therefore the 5th telephone number is 26.

69
Happy Numbers

Happy numbers are defined by the rule that you start with any positive integer,
square each of the digits then add them together. Now do the same with the new
number. Happy numbers will eventually spiral down to a number of 1. Numbers
that dont eventually reach 1 are called unhappy numbers.

As an example, say we start with the number 23. Next we do 2+3 = 13. Now,
1+3 = 10. Now 1+0 = 1. 23 is therefore a happy number.

There are many things to investigate. What are the happy numbers less than
100? Is there a rule which dictates which numbers are happy? Are there
consecutive happy numbers? How about prime happy numbers? Can you find the
infinite cycle of sadness?

Nrich has a discussion on some of the maths behind happy numbers. You can use
an online tool to test if numbers are happy or sad.

Perfect Numbers
Perfect numbers are numbers whose proper factors (factors excluding the number
itself) add to the number. This is easier to see with an example.

6 is a perfect number because its proper factors are 1,2,3 and 1+2+3 = 6
8 is not a perfect number because its proper factors are 1,2,4 and 1+2+4 = 7

70
Perfect numbers have been known about for about 2000 years however they are
exceptionally rare. The first 4 perfect numbers are 6, 28, 496, 8128. These were all
known to the Greeks. The next perfect number wasnt discovered until around 1500
years later and not surprisingly as its 33,550,336.

The next perfect numbers are:

8,589,869,056 (discovered by Italian mathematician Cataldi in 1588)

137,438,691,328 (also discovered by Cataldi)
2,305,843,008,139,952,128 (discovered by Euler in 1772).

and they keep getting bigger. The next number to be discovered has 37 digits are
was discovered over 100 years later. Today, even with vast computational power,
only a total of 48 perfect numbers are known. The largest has 34,850,340 digits.

There are a number of outstanding questions about perfect numbers. Are there an
infinite number of perfect numbers? Is there any odd perfect number?

Euclid in around 300BC proved that that 2p1(2p1) is an even perfect number
whenever 2p1 is prime. Euler (a rival with Euclid for one of the greatest
mathematicians of all time), working on the same problem about 2000 years later
went further and proved that this formula will provide every even perfect number.
This links perfect numbers with the search for Mersenne Primes which are primes
in the form 2p1. These are themselves very rare, but every new Mersenne Prime
will also yield a new perfect number.

The first Mersenne Primes are

(221) = 3
(231) = 7
(251) = 31
(271) = 127

Therefore the first even perfect numbers are:

21(221) = 6
22(231) = 28
24(251) = 496
26(271) = 8128

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Friendly Numbers

Friendly numbers are numbers which share a relationship with other numbers. They
require the use of (a) which is called the divisor function and means the addition of
all the factors of a. For example (7) = 1 + 7 = 8 and (10) = 1 +2 +5 + 10 = 18.
Friendly numbers therefore satisfy:

(a)/a = (b)/b

As an example (from Wikipedia)

(6) / 6 = (1+2+3+6) / 6 = 2,
(28) / 28 = (1+2+4+7+14+28) / 28 = 2
(496)/496 = (1+2+4+8+16+31+62+124+248+496)/496 = 2

Therefore 28 and 6 are friendly numbers because they share a common

relationship. In fact all perfect numbers share the same common relationship of
2. This is because of the definition of perfect numbers above!

Numbers who share the same common relationship are said to be in the same
club. For example, 30,140, 2480, 6200 and 40640 are all in the same club
because they all share the same common relationship 12/5.
(eg. (30) /30 = (1+2+3+5+6+10+15+30) / 6 = 12/5 )

Are some clubs of numbers infinitely big? Which clubs share common integer
relationships? There are still a number of unsolved problems for friendly numbers.

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Solitary Numbers

Solitary numbers are numbers which dont share a common relationship with any
other numbers. All primes, and prime powers are solitary.
Additionally all number that satisfy the following relationship:
HCF of (a) and a = 1.
are solitary. All this equation means is that the highest common factor (HCF) of (a)
and a is 1. For example lets choose the number 9.

(9)= 1+3+9 = 13. The HCF of 9 and 13 = 1. So 9 is solitary.

However there are some numbers which are not prime, prime powers or satisfy HCF
((a) and a) = 1, but which are still solitary. These numbers are much harder to
find! For example it is believed that the following numbers are solitary:

10, 14, 15, 20, 22, 26, 33, 34, 38, 44, 46, 51, 54, 58, 62, 68, 69, 70, 72, 74, 76,
82, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 99
But no-one has been able to prove it so far. Maybe you can!

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Using Chi Squared to crack codes

This is inspired from the great site, Practical Cryptography which is a really good
resource for code making and code breaking. One of their articles is about how we
can use the Chi Squared test to crack a Caesar Shift code. Indeed, if you use an
online program to crack a Caesar shift, they are probably using this technique.

This is the formula that you will be using for Chi Squared. It looks more complicated
than it is. Say we have the following message (also from Practical Cryptography):

AOLJHLZHYJPWOLYPZVULVMAOLLHYSPLZARUVDUHUKZPTWSLZAJPWOLY
ZPAPZHAFWLVMZBIZAPABAPVUJPWOLYPUDOPJOLHJOSLAALYPUAOLWSH
PUALEAPZZOPMALKHJLYAHPUUBTILYVMWSHJLZKVDUAOLHSWOHILA

We first work out the frequency of each letter which we do using the Counton site.

We next need to work out the expected values for each letter. To do this we first
need the expected percentages for the English language:

Then we can count the number of letters in the code we want to crack (162 again
we can use an online tool)
Now, to find the expected number of As in the code we simply do 162 x 0.082 =
13.284.

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The actual number of As in the code is 18.

Therefore we can do (13.284-18)2/18 following the formula at the top of the page.
We then do exactly the same for the Bs in the code. The expected number is 162 x
0.015 = 2.43. The actual number is 3.

Therefore we can do (3-2.43)2 /2.43

We do this same method for all the letters A-Z and then add all those numbers
together. This is our Chi Squared statistic. The lower the value, the closer the 2
distributions are. If the expected values and the observed values are the same then
there will be a chi squared of zero.

If you add all the values together you get a Chi Squared value of 1634 which is
quite large! This is what we would expect because we already know that the code
we have received has letter frequencies quite different to normal English sentences.

Now, what a Caesar Shift decoder can do is shift the received code through all the
permutations and then for each one find out the Chi Squared value. The
permutation with the lowest Chi Squared will be the solution.

For example, if we shift every letter in our received code back by one using the
Counton tool (so A goes to Z etc) we get:

ZNKIGKYGXIOVNKXOYUTKULZNKKGXROKYZQTUCTGTJYOSVRKYZIOVNKX
YOZOYGZEVKULYAHYZOZAZOUTIOVNKXOTCNOINKGINRKZZKXOTZNKVRG
OTZKDZOYYNOLZKJGIKXZGOTTASHKXULVRGIKYJUCTZNKGRVNGHKZ

We can then do the same Chi Squared calculations as before. This will give a Chi
Squared of 3440 which is an even worse fit than the last calculation.

If we carried this on so that A goes to T we would get:

THECAESARCIPHERISONEOFTHEEARLIESTKNOWNANDSIMPLESTCIPHER
SITISATYPEOFSUBSTITUTIONCIPHERINWHICHEACHLETTERINTHEPLA
INTEXTISSHIFTEDACERTAINNUMBEROFPLACESDOWNTHEALPHABET

and a Chi Squared on this would show that this has a Chi Squared of 33 ie it is a
very good fit. (You will get closer to zero on very long code texts which follow
standard English usage).

Now, obviously we could see that this is the correct decryption without even working
out the Chi Squared value but this method allows a computer to do it, without
needing the ability to understand English.

Additionally a codebreaker who spoke no English would still be able to decipher this
code, on mathematics alone.

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The Practical Cryptography site have a tool for quickly working out Chi Squared
values from texts so you can experiment with your own codes. Note that this is a
slightly different use of Chi-Squared as here we are not comparing with a critical
value, but instead comparing all Chi Squared to find the lowest value.

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Statistics to win penalty shoot-outs

With the World Cup nearly upon us we can look forward to another heroic defeat on
penalties by England. England are in fact the worst country of any of the major
footballing nations at taking penalties, having won only 1 out of 7 shoot-outs at the
Euros and World Cup. In fact of the 35 penalties taken in shoot-outs England have
missed 12 which is a miss rate of over 30%. Germany by comparison have won 5
out of 7 and have a miss rate of only 15%.

With the stakes in penalty shoot-outs so high there have been a number of studies
to look at optimum strategies for players.

Shoot left when ahead

One study published in Psychological Science looked at all the penalties taken in
penalty shoot-outs in the World Cup since 1982. What they found was pretty
incredible goalkeepers have a subconscious bias for diving to the right when their
team is behind.

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As is clear from the graphic, this is not a small bias towards the right, but a very
strong one. When their team is behind the goalkeeper apparently favours his (likely)
strong side 71% of the time. The strikers shot meanwhile continues to be placed
either left or right with roughly the same likelihood as in the other situations. So,
this built in bias makes the goalkeeper much less likely to help his team recover
from a losing position in a shoot-out.

Shoot high

Analysis by Prozone looking at the data from the World Cups and European
Championships between 1998 and 2010 compiled the following graphics:

The first graphic above shows the part of the goal that scoring penalties were aimed
at. With most strikers aiming bottom left and bottom right its no surprise to see that
these were the most successful areas.

The second graphic which shows where penalties were saved shows a more complete
picture goalkeepers made nearly all their saves low down. A striker who has the
skill and control to lift the ball high makes it very unlikely that the goalkeeper will
save his shot.

The last graphic also shows the risk involved in shooting high. This data shows
where all the missed penalties (which were off-target) were being aimed.
Unsurprisingly strikers who were aiming down the middle of the goal managed to hit
the target! Interestingly strikers aiming for the right corner (as the goalkeeper
stands) were far more likely to drag their shot off target than those aiming for the
left side. Perhaps this is to do with them being predominantly right footed and the

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angle of their shooting arc?

Win the toss and go first

The Prozone data also showed the importance of winning the coin toss 75% of the
teams who went first went on to win. Equally, missing the first penalty is disastrous
to a teams chances they went on to lose 81% of the time. The statistics also show
a huge psychological role as well. Players who needed to score to keep their teams in
the competition only scored a miserable 14% of the time. It would be interesting to
see how these statistics are replicated over a larger data set.

Dont dive

A different study which looked at 286 penalties from both domestic leagues and
international competitions found that goalkeepers are actually best advised to stay in
the centre of the goal rather than diving to one side. This had quite a significant
affect on their ability to save the penalties increasing the likelihood from around
13% to 33%. So, why dont more goalkeepers stay still? Well, again this might come
down to psychology a diving save looks more dramatic and showcases the
goalkeepers skill more than standing stationary in the centre.

So, why do England always lose on penalties?

There are some interesting psychological studies which suggest that England suffer
more than other teams because English players are inhibited by their high public
status (in other words, there is more pressure on them to perform and hence that
pressure is harder to deal with). One such study noted that the best penalty takers
are the ones who compose themselves prior to the penalty. Englands players start
to run to the ball only 0.2 seconds after the referee has blown making them much
less composed than other teams.

However, I think you can put too much analysis on psychology the answer is
probably simpler that other teams beat England because they have technically
better players. English footballing culture revolves much less around technical skill
than elsewhere in Europe and South America and when it comes to the penalty
shoot-outs this has a dramatic effect.

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As we can see from the statistics, players who are technically gifted enough to lift
their shots into the top corners give the goalkeepers virtually no chance of saving
them. Englands less technically gifted players have to rely on hitting it hard and low
to the corner which gives the goalkeeper a much higher percentage chance of
saving them.

Test yourself
You can test your penalty taking skills with this online game from the Open
University choose which players are best suited to the pressure, decide what
advice they need and aim your shot in the best position.

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