At the time of writing, second class stamps cost 12p and first class 17p. To minimise the amount of change in my pocket I have a preference for buying these stamps in ratios that cost a whole number of pounds.

“Find the modulus and the argument of each root of the equation:

(University of London A level, part question.)

We were investigating iterative methods of solving the equation, using a micro-package (in BASIC) which performs complex arithmetic and displays the results in an Argand diagram. The facility for “doodling” which this provides led to some interesting conjectures and results, of which this note is an account.

Over the past few years more and more schools have been able to gain access to computers. Many have their own terminals, and can work on-line, others send their material to a centre for batch processing. This article looks at some examples of the way such computing facilities can be used in the teaching of statistics. Clearly much more work can be done with interactive programs carried out on-line, but a great deal can be done with off-line facilities. Two difficulties with statistics are that experiments can take a long time and that the resulting computations can become tedious. In both cases the main statistical ideas can get lost in the sheer drudgery involved. One undeniable advantage of a computer is that it does things quickly. It is putting these two facts together that can make computers a useful tool in the teaching of statistics.

Teachers of elementary Mathematics are generally very glad to find some unfamiliar field into which they can turn their pupils to exercise themselves in elementary processes. The following is a suggestion of a method of approaching certain theorems in connection with the Geometry of the Triangle which, although well known to Mathematicians, are not, as a rule, studied as part of a school course, except perhaps by specialists. The Brocard Points and Circle are generally approached, via the theory of Isogonal Conjugates (see Casey’s Sequel to Euclid, Supplementary Chapter, Section I. etc.). But many of the properties connected with these points can be obtained in a more direct manner, and this suggests some interesting investigations involving nothing but the ordinary processes of Geometry and Trigonometry.

Although the approximation of elementary functions is a well-researched area of mathematics, very little has been published on built-in routines in any particular calculator or computer. Computer manufacturers are, understandably perhaps, reluctant to publicise details about their algorithms. Hewlett-Packard have been less secretive than most and allowed an occasional glimpse behind the scene in their own Journal and various other sources. The following square root routine for one of their machines, the now extinct 2000F series, has appeared in an Open University text on numerical computation [1]. The process of evaluating √x is carried out in four steps:

An elementary algebraic problem attributed to Leonardo of Pisa is analysed and some illogical elements in its formulation and solution are exposed. The natural context in which the problem was formulated is then proposed, and some consequences are discussed.

How many times have you heard that somebody is a wizard? And how many times did you take it literally? Most likely, the answer to the second question is ‘never’. And yet, there are reasons to believe that some people among us are real wizards, of the kind described with so much charm in the recently published series of books on Harry Potter [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. These books have provided us with a wealth of details on wizards and their society.

Two prominent themes in the Presidential Address upon which this article is based were Enthusiasm and Challenge.

Many, if not most, practitioners of Mathematics can trace their interest in the subject to an enthusiastic teacher at some stage of their education. In this day and age, it is all too easy to get bogged down in a morass of assessment and quality assurance. Yet it is vital that teachers of Mathematics at all levels retain their enthusiasm and pass this on to their students.

Graphical Interference can be attractive and it can be disturbing. We might want to live with it or we might want to avoid it, and in this article we see that elementary geometry suffices to analyse the phenomenon so that we can control it as we wish.