Maths
4 breaks
Patterns, chance and the numbers hiding in everyday things.
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Why random dice rolls draw a perfect fractal: the chaos game and the Sierpiński triangle
Pick three dots, then keep jumping halfway towards a randomly chosen one. It sounds like it should leave a grey smudge, but after a few thousand jumps a…
Why a dropped stick can find π: Buffon's needle
Drop a stick on a floor of planks and count how often it lands across a seam. The count secretly contains π: for a needle as long as the plank width, the…
How dropping needles on a floor reveals the number π: Buffon's needle
Toss a match onto a plank floor and ask: does it touch a crack? Do it thousands of times and the fraction that do will quietly spell out π, though no circle is…
Why turning a wobbly table can stop it rocking: the quarter-turn proof
Your café table rocks. Before you wedge a folded napkin under a leg, try turning the whole table on the spot. On most floors, somewhere within a quarter-turn…