Add new comment
-
Want facts and want them fast? Our Maths in a minute series explores key mathematical concepts in just a few words.
A basic introduction to the most powerful tools in science and enginnering.
As COP28, the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, kicks off we look at how maths can help understand the climate crisis.
How do you create dramatic film out of mathematics? We find out with writer and director Timothy Lanzone.
Mathematics plays a central role in understanding how infectious diseases spread. This collection of articles looks at some basic concepts in epidemiology to help you understand this fascinating and important field, and set you up for further study.
Find out why the formula we use to work out conditional probabilities is true!
Wondered what would happen if you went up several floors at a time. Serendipity had it that I started at the tenth floor, ascending another ten if the egg didn't break and testing at each of the previous nine floors if it did. Turns out to be 19 tests - which appears to be a minimum. After playing around in Excel and resurrecting 40 year old calculus:
In general for a building with F floors, split into N stages of x floors the number of tests T required are: T = N + x - 1
N = F/x so T = F/x + x -1 with derivative dT/dx = 1 - F/x^2; giving a minimum at x = sqrt(F)
For 100 floors the minimum is at 10 and 19 tests are required.