Wycombe Abbey: London mathematics lectures

At the end of the Spring term, several LVI mathematics students, accompanied by Dr Wallwork, attended a series of lectures in London where we were introduced to the topic of infinity by Professor Timothy Gowers from Cambridge, one of the world's most renowned Pure Mathematicians and holder of a Fields Medal. We were asked to ponder intriguing questions such as is it ever possible to add a book to a library already with an infinite number of books... We also touched upon the extremely complex and confusing topic of '4-dimensions', and even learnt that the Simpsons is not just a silly TV show, but is actually written by several PhD mathematicians and physicists, who have hidden countless 'maths jokes' and important discrete numbers throughout the show, such as Mersenne primes, perfect numbers and counter examples to Fermat's last theorem! Thus demonstrating to us that the show can be viewed on a completely different plane!

The day trip was extremely enjoyable - it encouraged us to think laterally and to widened our horizons to topics we would otherwise never be exposed to at School. Since then, several of us have been encouraged to consider studying mathematics at University.

By Lara