The Year 12 & 13 Regular Problem Solving ‘Maths Club’ at Birmingham University began its fifth year in September. We meet weekly in the Watson building at the university until Easter. At each session we consider a range of mathematical problems taken largely but not exclusively from university entrance examinations. The meetings are unstructured so that students may work on whichever problems they wish (including some they bring themselves) with ad hoc help provided by the tutors. Occasional presentations are made on interesting topics either in the news or of historical interest. Some of the topics for this term are How calculus really works, Big numbers, bigger numbers and numbers so big they make your teeth hurt, and Summing some divergent series.
This year a satellite club meets at Holyhead School to accommodate North Birmingham students who find travel to the university inconvenient.
By Martyn Quigley