Podcast
The travelling salesman
How do you create dramatic film out of mathematics? We find out with writer and director Timothy Lanzone.
Article
e for exponential
At the beginning of an epidemic the number of infected people grows exponentially. But why does the number e appear in descriptions of this growth?
Article
What is the generation time of a disease?
To work out how a disease will spread you need to know the time between infections.
Article
How can maths fight an epidemic?
How can we use mathematics to model the spread of a disease?
Article
The doubling time of a disease
The doubling time of a disease is the time it takes for the number of cases of the disease to double. How do you calculate it?
Article
The growth rate of a disease
What is the growth rate and what does it tell us about an epidemic?
Collection
Disease modelling for beginners
This collection of articles looks at some basic concepts in epidemiology and how mathematics plays a central role in understanding how infectious diseases spread.
Referenced articles
Article
R and herd immunity
What is herd immunity and what does it have to do with a number called R?
Article
Maths in a minute: Algorithms
The word "algorithm" has probably got more usage over the last few years than it has in its entire history. But what exactly is an algorithm?
Article
Maths in a minute: Exponential growth
What do we mean when we say that something grows exponentially?
Podcast
The universal machine
Alan Turing – brilliant mathematician, code breaker during World War II – achieved so much during his tragically short life. But how do you put Turing's life and mathematics on stage... and as a musical?
Article
Maths in a minute: Conditional probability
Find out why the formula we use to work out conditional probabilities is true!