Parker noticed a flurry of tweets about a mathematical date quirk featuring the magic number 823. In 2010 a number of tweets pointed out that October would have five Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and that this seeming month of weekends would not recur for 823 years.

Later, as if proving the recent suggestions that heavy Googling can impair memory, the Twittersphere started to point out that July 2011 would have five weekends.

Was this a miracle year, 822 years early? No. And, as Matt Parker describes, you don’t even need a calendar to prove just how common such five-weekend months are.

With slightly more thought, you’ll notice that all 31 day months must have five lots of some group of three days, starting with whatever day the 1st of the month is. As the days drift around the year, eventually they all get equal goes and so 1/7 of all 31 month days will start with a Friday. There are seven 31 days in the year. This will average our rather nicely to happening once a year, not every 823 years.

Bravo. One for common sense. But it points to a problem in public perceptions of things mathematical, never mind the apparently short attention spans of heavy internet users.

This 823-years meme had me suspecting that people saw a fact accompanied by a big number and instantly assumed that they couldn’t think it through for themselves.

And this is something yours truly finds interminably frustrating – the idea that numbers have a sort of ‘woo’ factor. The longer the number, the apparently more complicated the algorithm, the more we are liable to suspend disbelief.

Take the classic ‘mind-reading’ number trick, where you ask someone to do a set of routine calculations and they arrive at the same number, magically, as everyone else: “Think of a number. Double it. Add fourteen. Halve that number, and subtract your original number. Your answer is seven!”

The puzzle relies on us not checking our tendency to be awed by number facts, however simple or even silly.

So Parker, in response to his 823 years nonsense, tried to counter it with a mostly-true-but-false-sounding maths claim:

Add the digits of your age in 2011. Subtract from age and add digits of answer. eg 31-4=27,2+7=9 It’s always 9! Will work again in 823 years

…and got a hat-load of responses – some ticking him off, many blindly forwarding it. The ones who ticked him off made Parker feel, well, a bit unhappy that this was his default response to such online mathematical silliness.

And so Parker came to the conclusion that the best way to promulgate maths understanding and (justifiable) awe, and to counter the duff numeracy online, is to spread real and interesting maths facts to one and all.

In a way, this is what we’ve always tried to do at Maths-Whizz. Spread a love of maths with interesting, exciting explorations into those magic numbers.

Why would anyone be anti pi? This most famous of numbers, the constant ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter, subject of mathematically-accurate song, verse, and fantastically-complicated mnemonics, is a fact of life, the universe and everything.

But, say detractors, pi is not ideal. Enter ‘tau’. Tau is basically twice pi – otherwise known as the ratio between a circle’s radius and its circumference.

To some, tau is purer, simpler; not least because pi must be clumsily doubled to relate it to the standard unit of angle the radian. Radian is the ratio of a circle’s arc to its radius, and the number of radians in a circle is tau, or two times pi. If we used tau, all would be right with the world.

It’s an interesting suggestion, and a nice argument for practicality and elegance in maths, that most beautiful of sciences. But, as the eminent Marcus du Sautoy pointed out this morning:

It’s really a notational obsession, rather than actually changing the mathematics.

And we aren’t ones to disagree with the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. Besides, pi gives us ample excuse to make awful pie-related gags every so often.

Can you eat a ‘tau’? No! Argument over…

If, after all this, you were wondering “why today?”, here’s why: Pi is 3.1415…, and March 14th is thus known as Pi Day (at least to Americans). Double pi and you get 6.28…, or June 28th.

As Alex discussed on BBC Radio 4 this morning, he has been using his new favouritenumber.net website to find out which numbers we love, and why. He even wants to know if you don’t have a favourite number.

Mr Bellos has already discovered some interesting facts about favourite numbers and people: that many Indian respondents prefer numbers 1 and 10; and that people whose birthdays fall on the first tend not prefer that number, but those whose birthdays are later in the month are more likely to claim the date as their favourite number.

Why not submit your own favourite number and help Alex discover more about our national and personal preferences in number. And if, like me, you have no particular favourite, let him know that, and why.

If you (or your Maths-Whizzer) have not yet logged in to your Maths tutoring account, do so now, and get some colourful Easter Egg bedroom wallpaper. Maths-Whizz is perfect for helping with ‘holiday learning loss’, in which subjects learned in term time are gradually forgotten over the sunny downtime. This Easter break may be no exception.

In the meantime at Whizz Towers in London we’re enjoying the glorious spring sunshine and hope wherever you are that you have a happy Easter, and happy Maths-Whizzing…

But, for your delayed edification and delight, a couple of topical nuggets about that loveliest of irrational numbers.

First, from kottke.org, celebrating pi day with a great fact:

…this is my new favorite fact about pi: we have calculated pi out to over 6.4 billion digits but only 39 of them are needed to calculate the circumference of a circle as big as the universe “with a precision comparable to the radius of a hydrogen atom”. (via @santheo)

And, second, a musical number (pardon the pun) devoted to pi, and based on its shapely digits. Listen, and enjoy:

And that’s that!

Whizz Prof loves numbers and loves to share this love with anyone and everyone! What better day to do so than on Valentine’s Day, a day when symmetrical hearts are decorated, flowers (remember Fibonacci?) are given by the dozen, and Valentines cards are sorted. And at the end of the day, we can count all the ways we love thee…

1. Exchanging approximately 1 Billion Valentine’s Day Cards worldwide (according to the U.S Greeting Card Association).
2. More than 650 million Valentines will be exchanged by children ages 6 to 10 with teachers, classmates and family members.
3. Out of all Valentine’s exchanged teachers will receive the most Valentine’s Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, and then, sweethearts.
4. 35 million heart shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine’s Day.

Whizz Prof’s love of Maths was inspired by all the ways Maths is used in everyday life and how it makes solving complex problems a little easier.

Your home and classrooms may have a fair share of these hearts, flowers, cards and candies, so why not use Valentine’s Day to inspire the love of Maths in your children and students? Estimate the number of sweets in a jar, compare the number of cards (or chocolates) sold on Valentine’s Day compared to other holidays, or use symmetrical hearts to build a number line.
You might help start a love that lasts a lifetime!

The Nerd Rises - Alex Bellos and Matt Parker

Writing about Ed Miliband’s recent admission that he was a bit of a nerd, Parker gives succour to those who have been teased for their geeky interests and ambitions at school.

I’ve taught maths in inner London comprehensives and they are full of kids having a rough time who will undoubtedly succeed in the rest of their life. I remember looking at the members of the maths club and thinking “you’ve just got to make it through these few years and then you’ll be all right”.

At Maths-Whizz we celebrate the nerd, the geek, the unashamed lover of the science of patterns. We know (and we’ve often pointed out in this blog) just how useful a love of maths can be.

As Parker notes, the geeky, maths-loving founders of Google are two of the world’s richest people (never mind the equally geeky Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg). For me, that’s no so important as the fact that their love of numbers and the so-called ‘nerdy’ subjects has opened whole worlds for them, and us, to explore.

Ben Goldacre, a self-confessed geek about science, medicine, and statistics uses his inner nerd for good – exposing bad science everywhere, often just through careful use of maths.

Chris Addison uses his nerdy side to make us laugh, and then think. Brian Cox uses his love of science (and, admittedly, his boyish good looks) to help us understand, and marvel at, the universe.

Parker, Goldacre, and Addison are some of the stars of 2011′s wonderful Geek Calendar – a picture celebration of the awkward squad made good – Aleks Krotoski, Alex Bellos, and more… even Jonathan Ross.

Any child who wants to be better at maths but thinks it’s not ‘cool’ should be reassured that they will join an illustrious group whose number skills and all-round nerdiness have taken them places others can only dream about. Whether they’re already Maths-Whizzers, or just want to be, we welcome them all.

So, inspired by Parker’s remarks, we should proclaim:

Blessed are the nerds, for they shall inherit the Earth.

[via The Guardian's Comment is Free and The Geek Calendar]

By way of compensation for this lack of seasonal cheer, here’s a lovely and slightly soothing season’s greetings video from erstwhile Whizz animator Joana Teixidor.

christmas 2010/2011 from Joana Teixidor on Vimeo.

Have a happy and healthy 2011, from all of us at Maths-Whizz!

But this one, from Google’s Chrome OS team, is worth a look for two reasons:

You can watch the video in its five-minute entirely below, and read the puzzle solution at the Chrome OS blog, here.

Yet another reason to improve your maths with our online maths tutoring – score a free computer!

[via engadget]

“If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while.”

Lehrer is famous for writing silly-serious and sometimes lewd songs about current affairs from the mid 1950s until 1973, or thereabouts. He has had a fascinating career as a Harvard mathematician, Los Alamos researcher, soldier, and satirist, whose upbeat-sounding songs often conceal serious comment about nuclear proliferation, religion, and amoral rocket scientists.

Since his semi-retirement from musical satire Lehrer has reappeared now and then, and one such example of his later ditties is ‘That’s Mathematics’, a song he wrote in the early ’90s for a children’s show, but never used.

We doubt you’ll be moved to be nasty to anyone, let alone strike a loved one, after listening to this lovely ditty about the joys and uses of mathematics, including a neat nod to Fermat-cracker Andrew Wiles.