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maths masterclass
posted on: june 19th 2020southgate school's dominic ellis writes about the maths masterclass:-
when i was first told about the masterclasses, i didn't really realise their significance. only after looking at wikipedia and seeing simon singh, who was my tutor, had not just a page, but an mbe. this sort of made me realise that it was actually at least something of some importance.
i was one of three in the group. the other two were girls from a different school to me, but they knew each other. i had been worried that they would be far smarter than me, but much to my relief, i didn't find myself struggling to keep up with them.
the kind of maths that we were doing was a mix of little tricks and higher level, even a-level maths, such as the 'i number' and how i² = -1. this was a very difficult concept to wrap my head around. how can you have a number that has no actual numerical value, not a letter to substitute an infinite number, like π, but a number that can only be a letter?
nothing we spent a great deal of time on was like what we (would) do at school, and it was interesting approaching maths from a different perspective.
overall, i really enjoyed the maths masterclasses and would be interested in doing more if the opportunity arises.