Oxford Mathematics

Tough choice. I'll have the Spaghetti alla Sam for main.

Roger Penrose is 95 today. The fire still burns bright.

It has been erroneously suggested that we are using Pluto, our feline favourite, to sneak maths into the lives of people who don't understand it. Actually, we are using maths to sneak cats into the lives of people who don't understand them.

Pi and maths in India are on the menu in the last 'Tower of Babel'. Unlike other mathematical words, Pi has a habit of being the same in many languages. Pi Day is on 14 March each year (geddit?). But if you don't want to be reminded of maths, there's always National Pie Day (US) or Pie Week (UK). Much too filling.

Pluto isn't doing much here. In fact he's not doing anything at all. But from his sedentary position, he is demonstrating an important piece of mathematics. Doesn't he always?

Equations (in seven tongues) and al-Khwarizmi are the stars of Tower of Babel Episode 8. Note from our historian: as Yassine says, al-Khwarizmi gave his name to the word 'algorithm', but the use of an algorithm to solve what we now call quadratic equations dates back to the Mesopotamians c1800 BC.