/podcasts/wbu12.mp3

The dozenth episode of @reflectivemaths (Dave Gale in real life) and @icecolbeveridge (Colin Beveridge) chatting (and/or ranting) about the maths we’ve seen this month.

Which includes:

• A brief discussion of dozenal
• Colin gives blood and gets woozy; Dave tried it once
• The big question: why is maths important? In which it’s Dave’s turn to get a touch of the Hansens, and Colin starts shilling for Teacher Training Tests For Dummies (available in all good bookshops soon)
• Google threatens Colin for broadcasting material - such as Dave’s and his own voices and the jingles he made
• Misleading graphs and how @ampp3d is trying to do the Maths Police’s job
• Dave gets his students drunk ((ON KNOWLEDGE)) and launches Dave’s Human Competence GCSE
• @njj4 (fellow new dad Nick Jackson) points out that gravitational forces of the planets when you’re born are dwarfed by the gravitational effects of nearby medical staff
• Some things we like in maths: difference of two squares, complex numbers, Euclid’s proof of the primes
• Loyal listener @srcav on rounding incorrectly and whether maths teachers need maths degrees, and a strong response from@miss_skinner (Sophie Skinner in real life)
• Colin disses circle theorems
• Colin shills for Teacher Training Tests For Dummies again, even though it’s not out until the summer
• Question to listeners: does sport science involve any game theory?
• @christianp (Christian Perfect in real life) has created a MathsJam Voronoi diagram and we wonder if tessellations have to be regular, and how to communicate exactly how awesome that is to someone who doesn’t like maths
• @aap03102 (Chris Smith in real life) has a newsletter which asks how many factors $10!$ has
• @sjsingh (Simon Singh) and his Simpsons’ Mathematical Secrets
• Who is the WBU audience? Are you all teachers? Leave us comments! (We neglect to thank loyal listener @notonlyahatrack for a nice iTunes review)
• Dave’s question from last time: it was 12 and a discussion of niceness in puzzles and the skill of spotting options; Colin shills a book that isn’t for sale, but you can get by signing up for the Sum Comfort newsletter.
• Colin’s question, stolen from @jussumchick (Jo Sibley in real life): if you cut a circle of card into two sectors and fold them into cones, what angle gives the biggest total volume?
• Colin doesn’t get continued fractions. Any thoughts?
• Intradepartment segregation at university (who teaches what?) and playing Doctors and Misters (congratulations, again, to Dr @peterrowlett), the mental health issues of doing doctorates and certificate mills
• Next up: our anniversary episode! Send us nice comments and/or audio clips if you’re so inclined!