Last Friday, we were lucky enough to visit the Maths Inspiration show in Bath. All LVI Maths A-Level students and selected UV were accompanied by some of our Maths teachers who kindly took the afternoon off to attend. We listened to three lectures by different speakers as well as a brief talk from the host of the show.

The show began with the host, Aoife Hunt, giving us a quick introduction of her work. She is a professor of crowd safety and security science and told us a bit about her research. It was so interesting to learn about the maths that is involved in managing crowds at big events, and in ensuring that infrastructure is built to accommodate large numbers of people. 

Our first speaker was Zoe Griffiths who gave us an extremely engaging overview of how maths and numbers can be manipulated by the media to serve their own interests. We were shown real-life examples of this occurring, such as statistics present in Trump’s election campaign. It was so interesting to realise how easy it is for the media to manipulate statistics and numbers to mislead us and was eye-opening for many of us. 

The next speaker was Paul Shepherd who was also extremely inspiring. He has taken part in the construction of various infrastructure, including football stadiums. He gave us a brief overview of the methods used to calculate the correct proportions when building these structures. It was interesting to see how maths is vital to structures that we see every day.

Lastly, we had the pleasure of listening to Ben Sparks who talked about 'The Sacred Geometry of Chance'. He was extremely engaging, making bets with students in the audience whilst teaching us about the mathematics behind probability and chance. This included giving us a deep dive into a game of poker. He even ended his talk with a performance on his guitar to reinforce his point that maths can be for enjoyment, not just for practical use. 

Overall, it was incredibly beneficial and enriching, giving us an insight into maths outside of the classroom and how maths is really essential to everyday life. We hope to attend again next year!

Cicely and Ellie, LVI