Maths in action

Where maths breaks out of the text book and gets busy in the real world.

Ticking over

The Rough Science team use the sun and some sticks making clocks.

Route masters?

Our scientists put trigonometry to the test in order to make a scale map of the island.

Additional support

Problems with adding up needn't stop you studying science - grab a calculator and get some help with maths.

Where do you stand?

If you were marooned on a desert island, how would you go about measuring latitude and longitude?

A hand with sums

Your ability with calculations could be down to your fingertips: how do humans set about learning about numbers?

Mathemagical

It can make Brad Pitt's buttocks wiggle and explain the death of fish. Meet mathematics, queen of the sciences.

Figures at work

They do more than sum up the profit and loss - discover the wide role played by numbers in business.

Keanu can-do?

If you needed to get a large bus across a larger gap, could you apply the lessons from Speed?

Plain sailing?

Would your metal boat - and your Gran - really get eaten away by lakes turned to acid, or does the real world not work like Dante's Peak?

A hill to climb

You're on your way for a cold beer when your ambulance gets stuck in a gully - can you escape like they did in Ice Cold In Alex?

Multiplication

Millions head out on each journey, but the odds are against them. Find out why just one sperm counts.

Clocking

Dick Stephen talks about his history of making things and his love of horology.

On target?

What do league tables really tell us? Discover how to make sense of the confusing claims of performance indicators.

Does it all add up?

Are the rules of maths part of the natural order, or are they a construction? Consider the philosophy of maths.

The art of numbers

Can artists help mathematicians avoid getting too spaced out?

Sample example

Does hanging around snooker halls make you a better player? And what does this tell us about medical studies and epidemiology?

Frank Spencer [Michael Crawford] tests the theory of centre of gravity

The middle

Whether you stand or fall owes a lot to your centre of gravity.

One of the piers left standing after the Tay Bridge collapsed

Start from the finish

The final resting position of an object is the first clue to calculating its trajectory.

Uneasy Relations

A simple introduction to the theory of relativity between time and space.

Have a try yourself

If, like the Rough Science team, you were stranded in a mystery location and asked 'where are you', how would you do?

Just 6 numbers

To Professor Sir Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, the essential nature of the cosmos and the evolution of the entire world have been determined by just 6 numbers.

Maths for the masses

Groups of people don't, as assumed, behave like fluids. Keith Still went working the crowd.

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