About the MathsJam

From Colin Wright:

Shortly before Easter I was privileged to attend the Gathering For Gardner, an event that celebrates the continuing life and work of Martin Gardner. The gathering brings together people with an interest in magic, puzzles, recreational maths, and the connection between them.

Everyone at the Gathering is amazingly generous, sharing tricks, problems, puzzles, and I learned so much, it was fantastic.

The week after Easter I was at the British Congress for Maths Education (BCME) and over lunch we were swapping puzzles and problems. David Bedford said, "Why don't we have a Gathering in the UK?"

I replied "Indeed - why don't we organise one." and so the MathsJam was born.

James and Matt were handy, so over coffee we tried to work out why it couldn't work, and failed. We thought about what would have to be done, and how we would have to do it, and it seemed like it could work.

And it should be fun.

And so it started. We're just a bunch of friends, interested in maths, wanting to share what we know, and in return be entertained and intrigued by others who share our love of fun in maths.

We're not professional events organisers, and we're not intending this to be a formal "training" or "educational" conference or event. It's just a gathering of people who share in enthusiasm for recreational maths.

You can read more about the Gathering For Gardner on the web:

• Article by Robert Crease in the Wall Street Journal
• Article by Alex Bellos in the Guardian
• Article in Seed Magazine

We're not looking for Earth-shattering maths, nor new discoveries, nor anything exceptionally deep or meaningful. We're looking for things that are surprising, unexpected, elegant, neat, cool, or whatever just intrigues you.

Can you give the question in 2 minutes, but have people scratching their head for days? No doubt someone will find the answer quickly, but if a few are puzzled, then it's a good one.

So here are some examples - don't expect them all to have clear answers, or even to be well-defined!

What proportion of numbers don't have the digit 9?	If a bacterium divides in two with probability p and dies the rest of the time, starting with one bacterium, what is the probability that the population dies out entirely?
What's the first number with an "a" when spelled out?

The team

The MathsJam team is headed by Colin Wright, with some advisers to assist.

Colin Wright

Colin has a Ph.D. from Cambridge and has worked as a research mathematician, and done research in computing. His day job is developing systems to do the maritime version of Air Traffic Control, and in his "free time" he travels around the world giving lectures on how and why maths can be interesting, fun, useful and even on occasion, exciting.

David Bedford

James Grime

James Grime has a PhD in Pure Maths from York University, where he stayed on for a time as a lecturer and researcher.

Now, James works for Cambridge University and the Millennium Mathematics Project as the Enigma Project Officer. In his spare time he has many hobbies, including juggling, unicycling and other circus skills.

Matt Parker

Matt Parker is an enthusiastic mathematics speaker whose goal in life is to make more people excited about mathematics. He studied mathematics and physics in Australia before training to be a teacher and working in both Australia and the UK.

In 2009, Matt was the warm up presenter for the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and won the People's Choice Award in the national Famelab competition.

• Matt's web site

Rob Eastaway

Rob Eastaway is an author who is active in the popularisation of mathematics. He has a degree in Engineering and Management Science from the University of Cambridge, and was made President of the UK Mathematical Association for 2007/2008. He is also a former puzzle-writer for the New Scientist Magazine.

Rob is the Director of Maths Inspiration, a national programme of maths lectures for teenagers which involves some of the UK's leading maths speakers.

• Rob's web site
• Maths Inspiration web site