Confessions Of A Math Convert

Summer is here, your windows are open and the smell of…car exhaust and the latest wildfire are wafting in. This air pollution is harmful to almost every organ, including the brain. Today on Short Wave, we talk about one way air pollution may cloud your memory.Interested in more e ...  Show more

Could standardizing chocolate help small-scale farmers? Chocolate scientist Julien Simonis thinks it could help persuade consumers to pay for higher quality chocolate, in turn helping out these growers. Every cacao bean is different, and for a long time, there wasn't a standard w ...  Show more

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Sara Pascoe and the very numerate Prof Hannah Fry, maths comedian Matt Parker and statistician Prof David Spiegelhalter for a unique maths class. Are some of us just innately bad at maths or can everyone get to grips with algebra an ...  Show more

To listeners of this podcast, it’s no secret that Tai loves math. But he knows that a lot of people, including his friends, definitely don’t feel the same way. In this episode, Tai uncovers why math gets such a bad rap, and if there’s any truth to the well-worn phrase: “I’m just ...  Show more

Do you tell yourself this story “Oh I’m terrible at maths.” Think about where that’s come from. Most importantly, as an adult, is it really true? Maths anxiety is seen as intense feelings of apprehension in the face of having to solve mathematical problems. It sounds a bit silly, ...  Show more

Faced with one cake and eight hungry people, it’s pretty obvious how maths underpins reality. But as mathematics gets further from common sense and into seemingly abstract territory, nature still seems to obey its rules - whether in the orbit of a planet, the number of petals ...