Mathemagician to cast spell on students

ANDREW JEFFREY taught mathematics for 20 years before becoming a full-time "mathemagician" last year.

He says his mission is to enthuse schoolchildren about maths and he uses magic tricks to help explain important concepts.

"I'm passionate about kids needing to get that association between maths and enjoyment," he says.

"Maths is not boring, but traditionally it's been presented in that way. I can't talk with any authority about the Irish curriculum, but in my experience in the UK all the maths children ever do is about passing exams. They are told to jump through hoops that make no sense to them.

"It needs a few brave souls at the top to say 'Let's get them familiar with enjoying and appreciating maths'." As Maths Week draws to a close, he will appear at Dublin City University this morning with a performance for junior-cycle secondary school pupils at 10.00 and a show for senior students at 11.45. (Contact: 01-7005293).

Waterford Institute of Technology plays host to Probability in Practice - From OJ Simpson to the Space Shuttle Disaster this morning at 10.30 (Contact: 051-302037).

Dr Pádraig Kirwan will explain the concept of probability to fifth and sixth class students using examples such as picking lottery numbers and investigating murder cases.

"Probability asks what are the chances of certain things happening. It puts a mathematical structure on how to figure out what the chances are. It should help students see that when it comes to making decisions, you have to look at the whole picture. Good decisions are made when you have a good understanding of probability. People who can make good decisions are worth their weight in gold."

Finally, there will be a talk in Irish on the father of Irish mathematics, William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865), by Prof Annraoi de Paor in the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin, at 1pm today (Contact: 01-6486332).

In 1843, while walking along the Royal Canal, Hamilton had a flash of inspiration. He saw the quaternion equation, one of his great contributions to mathematical science, in his mind's eye and scratched it on the wall of Broom Bridge.

Daily Logic Puzzle

Many older people claim that the standard of arithmetic has declined. Why not try your hand at a primary school sum typical of 50 years ago? A farmer rents a field of 3 acres, 3 roods and 21 perches at a rate of £4 6s 8d per acre. How much does he pay for the field?

Of course, you have to know that 1 acre = 4 roods and 1 rood = 40 perches, £1 (pound) = 20s (shillings), 1s = 12d (pence).

Answer tomorrow

Answer to yesterday's puzzle:The two euro coins can land in four different ways. Map/map, map/harp, harp/map and harp/harp. If they land on harp/harp, they are shaken up again. This means that when Mary gets round to betting, there are only three ways the coins can land: map/map, map/harp or harp/map.

If Pat removes a coin showing the map side, there are two out of three chances of the other coin being harp and only a one in three chance of it being map. Therefore, Mary is likely to win the bet two times out of three. No wonder she's smiling!