statistics
Robert Hunt worries about the decreasing numbers of mathematics students at UK universities.
Helen is a defence analyst with the MoD, using her maths skills to help defend the nation. Plus finds out about her career path.
Kittens, jaguars, giraffes and bees are just some of the stars in this issue of Plus, where we journey through our own intestines, examine the fashions of the animal world and use mathematics to seek universal truth... or perhaps just make some money.
Shane Whelan likes a challenge, and his career path has been defined both by what he enjoyed and by a desire to keep learning. Becoming an actuary seemed like the perfect solution.
Did you know that you can't average averages? Or that Paris is rainier than London ... but it rains more in London than in Paris? Andrew Stickland explores the dangers that face the unwary when using a single number to summarise complex data.
Geraldine Paxton, an electronics engineer, is a member of the Ford Motor Company Limited's graduate trainee scheme. Geraldine tells us about her work there, from driving cars on the German autobahns to ensuring production lines keep working. There's also salary information and a careers contact point.
Collecting chances
Find out about what it is like to work as an actuary with Watson Wyatt Partners Worldwide. There's also salary information and a careers contact point.
Emily Poskett works as a government statistician for the Department for International Development. With lots of travel and the opportunity to make a real difference in poorer countries, her job is far more than just number crunching.
NHS budgets, third world debt, predictions of global warming, inflation, Iraqi war dead, the decline of fish stocks or hedgehogs, the threat of cancer — there's hardly a subject people care about that comes without measurements, forecasts, rankings, statistics, targets, numbers of every variety. Do they illuminate or mislead? Introducing their new book, Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot take a look at numbers in the media and show that a little maths goes a long way in unravelling dodgy media claims.
We live in a world full of information and it's a statistician's job to make sense of it. In this article Dianne Cook explores ways of analysing data and shows how they can be applied to anything from investigating diners' tipping behaviour to understanding climate change and genetics.
This issue's teacher package brings together all Plus articles on probability and statistics, exploring anything from maths in the dock to games of chance. It also has some handy links to related problems on our sister site NRICH.
Evolution is the main theme of this issue. With Darwin's anniversary year not too far off, we find out how to reconstruct the tree of life and how to spot the fingerprint of natural selection. We report on the rapidly melting Arctic, bound to destroy much of evolution's achievements, and explore the maths used in ice and ocean models. And we have a look at cellular automata, simple mathematical models that can evolve surprisingly complex behaviour. Plus you can learn how to best distribute money amongst your employees without evolving envy.
How likely is that?
Chuck Gill caught the space bug as a child when watching Alan Shepherd launch into space. Since then he's worked as a US Air Force navigator, a satellite operator, and in the US intelligence service. These days he's busy reducing carbon emissions and preparing London for the 2012 Olympics. Plus went to see him to find out more about his career.
The recent news of the great Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar surpassing West Indian Brian Lara's record number of test runs has given maths-loving cricket geeks another opportunity to pull out their calculators and Excel spreadsheets. Marc West is openly one of these nuts and did just that.
Browse all articles from the Plus sports page.
What's your strategy for love? Hold out for The One, or try and avoid the bad ones? How long should you wait before cutting your losses and settling down with whoever comes along next? John Billingham investigates and saves the national grid in the process.
Be wise with hindsight
What Dickens thought about statistics
You might think that if you collected together a list of naturally-occurring numbers, then as many of them would start with a 1 as with any other digit, but you'd be quite wrong. Jon Walthoe explains why Benford's Law says otherwise, and why tax inspectors are taking an interest.
How to predict football scores
This year's prize goes to Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan
This issue's teacher package brings together all Plus articles on vectors and matrices, exploring anything from the maths of computer movies to climate change. It also has some handy links to related problems on our sister site NRICH.
Life is full of coincidences, but how do you work out if something is really as unlikely as it seems? In this article Rob Eastaway and John Haigh find chance in church and work out the odds.
Some spurious statistics
According to Darwin, natural selection is the driving force of evolution. It's a beautifully simple idea, but given the thousands of years that are involved, nobody has ever seen it in action. So how can we tell whether or not natural selection occurs and which of our traits are a result of it? In this article Charlotte Mulcare uses milk to show how maths and stats can provide genetic answers.
Modelling Olympic success
A new project hopes to reduce the experimental error in science teaching.
This issue's teacher package brings together all Plus articles on group theory, exploring its applications and recent breakthroughs, and giving explicit definitions and examples of groups. It also has some handy links to related problems on our sister site NRICH.
A UK government inquiry into maths education has the statistics community worried.
Have you got as many friends as you think?
The maths of the Eurovision song contest
With the rugby world cup in full swing, it's time to look at some numbers
Why rankings don't work
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics..." Ben Parker tells us how to tell good statistics from bad, and make sure your cat is well-fed.
How to manipulate risk statistics
Use our animations to find out
How to manipulate risk statistics
A statistical study into Iraq war deaths sparks controversy
How will the UK do in the 2012 Olympics?
The maths behind a curious ITV game show
The UK Statistics Authority fulfills its duty to keep the government honest
A statistical test applied to the election results
Will the Ashes result depend on the weather?
How do we know how many people have got it?
