Launched in 2011, Tiangong 1 was China’s first space station, serving as an experimental platform for bigger projects. The European Space Agency forecast that the bus-sized station, whose name translates as “Heavenly Palace,” would re-enter sometime this morning NZT. The Chinese space agency said it should happen during the course of today Beijing time. Based […]

As fireworks were fired off from Auckland’s Sky Tower to welcome 2018, the country welcomed the first baby of the new year. The healthy baby boy, weighing 3.5kg, was born at Auckland Hospital at 12.01am to a Howick couple on the first day of the new year. There are 526,600 minutes in a year, meaning […]

What are the Odds? Professor of mathematics, Peter Stoner (June 16, 1888 – March 21, 1980), gave 600 students a math probability problem that would determine the odds for one person fulfilling eight specific prophecies. (This is not the same as flipping a coin eight times in a row and getting heads each time.) First […]

Here is a helpful Introduction to Probability, including the Monty Hall problem (The Monty Hall problem is a brain teaser, in the form of a probability puzzle, loosely based on the American television game show Let’s Make a Deal). Adapted from an unknown source. Probability Intro-1i2cn0v

There are several variations of using dice to investigate chance and statistics. In this version, which works well in Junior High, students captain a cricket team and have a total of 11 players. Each player scores runs by rolling the die and using the number rolled to equal their runs. You can keep adding up […]

Monty Hall (left) was a game show host on “Let’s Make a Deal” who offered contestants a brand new car. All they had to do was choose the lucky door out of 3 possibilities. There was, clearly a 33.3% chance of choosing the car, right? Yes…right! However, after you chose a door, Monty Hall would, […]

Spring is sprung The grass is riz I wonder where the Math is! Yes, there lies a puzzle. How do plants know it is time to blossom and accept that spring has arrived? As Bill Finch said, in a recent article on the Mathematics of Spring, “You won’t find your spring on a calendar. There […]

The Mathematics of Probability is a fascinating one, and every day we take our chances in a variety of different situations (actually, some of our students take big chances every day, simply by running around corners without looking!). Impossible means a probability of 0; while certainty is a probability of 1.0 – that is, every […]

By the numbers (adapted from The New Zealand Herald) Lotto balls: 40 Balls needed to win Lotto: 6 Powerball balls: 10 Most common Powerball number drawn: 2 Biggest jackpots • Biggest Powerball jackpot: $34.8 million in 2011 (shared by two players). • Biggest individual Powerball prize: $28 million in 2010 (won by a single player). • […]

An interesting article from the BBC shows the importance of Mathematical probability in courtroom trials: Read the full article on how Mathematics was used to overturn convictions here.