NEW VIDEO: www.youtube.com/shorts/CXWH3...
Numbers vs. Words Round 19 - Growlery vs. 12,496. Which gets your vote? Rooms named after their function, or sociable numbers.
Vote for your favourite here: forms.gle/rT3dW52prKjp...
Tattoo 75 - Divergence Theorem. One of my favourite results in multivariable calculus, allowing you to change between a volume integral and a surface integral depending on which one is easiesr to solve. Part of the first year ‘Vector Calculus’ course I teach at the University of Cambridge.
Snaps from the past week onboard Norwegian Escape. The ‘Star of the Seas’ (seen in Costa Maya) is the largest non-military ship ever constructed at a cost of €2.12 billion. With a capacity of 7,000 passengers, each paying €2,000 per week onboard, how long would it take to recuperate costs?
Channeling my inner Indiana Jones - complete with hat - at Nim Li Punit Mayan Ruins in Belize. SO cool to see their number system first hand where it was carved into stelae used to track the solar calendar. A shell means 0, a dot means 1 and a bar means 5. Everything they needed to work in base 20.
We’re excited to announce that Dr Ismini Pells and Professor Andy Hopper have been shortlisted for Learning Programme of the Year at the Museums and Heritage Awards for The World Turned Upside Down, bringing the British Civil Wars to life for learners everywhere.
🔗 Read more: buff.ly/1zEErs9
Official TEDx Oxford photos are here and they are fab! Amazing to relive this incredible event at the Sheldonian Theatre - look out for the video coming soon!
Exploring cenotes in Cozumel, Mexico.
The longest system, Cueva Quebrada, is around 11,500 metres long - around 70% of the islands width and 25% of the islands length. Assuming the island fills 2/3 of a rectangle, approximately what is the area?
NEW VIDEO: Can AI Teach Me Maths?
I try questions from 4 different maths exams and ask AI to mark my answers. Can it teach me anything?
Premieres today at 5pm (GMT+1) - see you in the live chat!
Catch up on lecture 3 from the European Mathematical Society Education Series from Berkeley Professor Hung-Hsi Wu - a fascinating look at how we should be teaching school mathematics for mastery of the subject.
Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7KU...
Is it really a Florida trip if you don’t go to the theme parks? Chapter 4 of my book looks at the optimal way to combine maths and magic in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter so _technically_ this counts as research right?
Continuing to visit maths departments around the world. Can you guess this one before swiping to the end for the reveal?
The clues get a little easier as you go through - have fun!
You have 5 days remaining to submit your entry to the 2026 Tom Rocks Maths Essay Competition.
Write about your favourite maths topic for a non-specialist audience and be in with the chance to win a free place on one of my upcoming courses.
Enter here: lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/about/tom-ro...
Always a pleasure to host the Carnival of Mathematics from The Aperiodical, especially when it's a lovely 5-smooth number like 250.
Learn about perspective in paintings, the mystery of Unicode U+237C, and a tasty Fermi estimation problem - enjoy!
NEW VIDEO: youtube.com/shorts/-56Gr...
Pre-order your copy of my upcoming book 'How Many Pikachus Would It Take To Power A Lightbulb?" and receive a signed Pokémon card.
Order here: backstory.london/products/pre...
Susie’s lonely mouth carries her to victory in Round 18 of Numbers vs. Words - thanks mostly to huge support on Instagram.
The less said about Dr Tom’s attempted pizza cutting the better…
Look out for Round 19 coming next week, and catch up here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
NEW VIDEO: Watch me take the Maths Advanced Higher Paper 1 - the highest level of maths students in Scotland can take before leaving school. One of my favourite exams so far :)
It may be Easter but I’m going back to school to sit the Scottish Advanced Higher in Mathematics. Can you beat my score?
Premieres on YouTube tomorrow April 3rd at 1pm (GMT+1) - see you in the live chat!
Watch the trailer here: youtube.com/shorts/MnKU6...
STEP residential at Robinson College, Cambridge. I don’t think there’s a better feeling than writing maths in chalk.
Best of luck to anyone taking STEP this summer - I can’t wait to see you all in Cambridge next year!
NEW VIDEO: Can you solve this famous bearings problem?
SO cool to be working with BBC Bitesize to help more people get into Maths. This video contains everything you need to know about bearings for your GCSE exam, as well as the solution to a famous puzzle - can you figure it out?
NEW VIDEO: Rock, Marry, Kill - Trigonometry Edition
Sin, Cos, Tan. Which one do you rock? Which do you marry? And which one do you kill?
Here's the 'right' answer, but let me know what you'd do in the comments :)
Excellent day exploring the museums of Glasgow - including some nice mathematical finds. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was completed in 1901 at an estimated cost of £257,000 - around £40 million today.
Bonus maths question: how much value (as a %) has the British Pound lost since 1901?
Such a fun talk at the University of Glasgow today with Mac Soc - thanks to everyone for coming along, and especially to those lovely people that made me gifts <3
Excited for you all to see the full calculations when my book is released in November :)
Giving evidence as an educational content creator at the Houses of Parliament yesterday. Grateful to be able to have a voice in the debate around banning social media.
You can submit your own response to the UK government consultation here: www.gov.uk/government/c...
NEW VIDEO: Numbers vs. Words Round 18 - Kuchisabishii vs. 22
Which is your favourite? The "lonely mouth" or the maximum number of slices of pizza you can make with only 6 straight cuts?
Cast your vote here:
forms.gle/T4bKEgogQG5U...
Very good.
Tattoo 74 - Fourier Transform. Originally developed to study heat transfer, it’s now used to analyse audio, process images, and price stock market options. Versatile to say the least.
Spotting Turing Instabilities in the wild. Diffusion-driven instability leads to animal coat patterns with stripes forming initially in 1D before turning into 2D spots only for a larger domain size. This is why animals that have a striped body can never have a spotted tail (at least mathematically).
Bwindi is home to 120 species of mammal in 331 square km.
Lake Mburo is home to 69 species of mammal in 260 square km.
Kibale is home to 120 species of mammal in 795 square km.
Which of the 3 has the highest mammal species per square kilometre ratio?
The many landscapes of Uganda captured through selfies.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park rainforest, Lake Mburo National Park savannah, and Kibale National Park evergreen forest.
See below for a maths puzzle :)
Best photobomb ever? Still in disbelief I got to spend the afternoon with these incredible creatures. Made friends with a 200kg silverback and a baby born 3-hours earlier - now to teach them some maths…
Gorillas can eat up to 30kg of vegetation per day, which is what % of their body weight?