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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.
