History of Numbers
Sam Staton, University of Cambridge
Preliminary task, PowerPoint file from first VC and follow-up project work
Students' presentations for the second videoconference
St Augustine's CE School, London (283 bytes)
Pleckgate High School, Blackburn (123 kb)
VC1: April 14, 10.30am (British Summer Time - GMT +1)
VC2: May 13, 10.30am (BST)
This conference follows our two-conference
format, and is aimed at 14-16 year-old students. To book a place, go to our online registration form, and contact Adrian Cullum-Hanshaw, 01223 764106 or 0774 703 5984, to arrange a videoconferencing connection test.
- Where do numbers come from?
- Have people always used the same sorts of numbers?
- How can numbers be represented?
- What kinds of numbers are there?
- Why do we need root 2, pi and i?
- What’s the difference between XIV and 14?
- What’s the difference between
and 421, 4120 or 4021?
In this conference, we will look at the history of numbers and how they are represented. We will find out why we need the types of numbers we have, and whether there are other kinds of numbers that we might need. We will see why we have zero and infinity, and find out about irrational and imaginary numbers. Finally we will ask ourselves if this is the end of our number system or if there will be further evolution in our number system.
Schools already booked onto this conference or on the waiting list
PowerPoint file from first videoconference (1.60Mb)
Discuss the three questions Tope raised at the end of the VC.
