Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 18/07/2026They are the same number (but obv not both acceptable answers!). ‘Being rounded’ isn’t a property that any types of numbers have. The reason that ‘4.0’ isn’t an acceptable answer isn’t because it’s somehow a different number - it’s because in some contexts it implies an interval instead 130
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 18/07/2026(Although I’d maintain they’re right that they are the same number, but wrong to think that implies they’re interchangeable as answers.) 110
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 18/07/2026I suspect there’s some context I’m missing though 100
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 18/07/2026In what way? Assuming those expressions are referring to numbers, they’re the same number. 100
Reposted by Jonathan PayneUnited Learning Maths Excellence Programme @ulmathsexcellence.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Love to see this display with work from our enriched curriculum going up in one of our schools 021
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Going to be even more of a maths pedant to say that whether it’s impossible entirely depends on what it’s 100% *of*. 190
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 04/07/2026Something of the form a+bi where a and b are complex, of course 110
Reposted by Jonathan Paynerobertfathauer.bsky.social @robertfathauer.bsky.social · 25/06/2026The website for the 2026 Bridges Conference Exhibition of Mathematical Art, Craft, and Design is now live, featuring the work of more than 150 artists. gallery.bridgesmathart.org/exhibitions/... 04019
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 22/06/2026Why are there so many pictures of 'golden spirals in nature' where it looks like they haven't even *tried* to make the spiral line up! What is even the point they're trying to make? 000
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Yes - but only looked at it briefly a while ago. Will have another look 010
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Yes - it's very consciously two straight lines plus a circle, based on Aristotelian ideas of physics. The first straight line is 'violent motion', then then vertical straight line is 'natural motion'. I think he goes into some specifics about the geometry of the circular arc which joins the two 010
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 19/06/2026For now just in the background. But hopefully we can share some stuff soon - I'll let you know 100
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 19/06/2026between angle and range of cannon, including at 45°. We are including some more 16th century diagrams which include these though 110
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 19/06/2026We're working with Carlisle Castle - initially because of the location of schools I'm working with rather than anything specific about the castle. The mortar at Goodrich looks really interesting! They don't have any mortars like that at Carlisle, but one thing planned is thinking about the link 200
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Which also allowed me to go to a great nerdy rabbithole about 16th century maths of cannon 110
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 19/06/2026I've been doing some work with English Heritage to develop some maths trips at castles (well - one castle so far). First pilot going on Monday, which I'm really excited about. 251
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Fascinated by pre-Newtonian theories of projectiles and how so obviously wrong they seem. I always wonder how these paths didn't seem incorrect to people at the time, but then whether I've just internalised the correct picture. Curious what typical 'pre-theoretic' drawings of the path would be 544
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 31/05/2026Watching 2001 space odyssey on Amazon prime. Love the famous jump cut where a monkey throws up the bone then it cuts to an advert - just as Kubrick intended 010
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 18/05/2026A pawn starts on the top row of a (semi) infinite chess board. It can move either one square down or diagonally down (capturing a piece). Highlighting which squares can be reached an even number of ways gives this rather nice fractal 000
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Misspelled ‘implementation’ is ‘implantation’ in a rather formal email… oops! 000
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 20/03/2026‘Do the reverse’ has a wide range of applications . E.g expand after factorising and vice versa. If you’ve split into a ratio, find the ratio from your parts etc. 012
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 04/02/2026An interesting article on the history of road crossings (including this point) here: joemoran.net/academic-art... I thought it was interesting that ‘jay walking’ was used occasionally in the uk going back a fair bitjoemoran.netCrossing the Road in Britain, 1931-1976‘If you need a real bodice-ripper, try Joe Moran’s “Crossing the Road in Britain, 1931-1976”. The paper illustrates how much of our attitude towards pedestrian and traffic controls, that zool… 030
Reposted by Jonathan PayneThe Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Kids love Philip Glass youtu.be/4JWwOzEDGss?...youtu.bePhilip Glass - Sesame Street - Geometry of Circles.mp4YouTube video by SamCam2011 729576
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 16/12/2025One thing that makes this difficult is the huge range it how AI might be used to code. Very reasonable to label a project that’s entirely vibe-coded as made with AI. Less so if someone’s just using copilot to autocomplete short snippets/lines of code they would’ve typed themselves anyway 010
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 14/12/2025Teach, check, practice. (Which is pretty much the same structure as I-we-you) 120
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 30/11/2025Making things easier to retrieve and better organised in long term memory 010
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 21/11/2025The two grey areas can be shown to be equal using some algebra. It seems like there should be a nice geometric argument (e.g. with cutting and rearranging), but I can't find one. Am I missing something obvious? 002
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 15/11/2025Very pleased with my mathematical broccoli/cauliflower. Just the one out of 8ish plants seemed to work 030
Reposted by Jonathan PayneDavid Didau @didau.bsky.social · 29/10/2025Telling students stuff is sensible. But if you’re *just* telling them, you’re not really teaching. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...open.substack.comThe “Just Tell Them” TrapHow direct instruction gets mistranslated as 'teacher talk,' lecturing and all sorts of other dull bobbins 0103
Reposted by Jonathan PayneTommaths (he/him) @teakayb.mathsy.space · 11/10/2025During our #MathsConf39 session, Jason and I revealed our new project: The History and Maths in Education Network (historyand.mathsy.space) which aims to facilitate discussion and sharing of resources & ideas amongst folks interested in using history themes to enrich maths education. 🏛️🎓 #MathsTodayhistoryand.mathsy.spaceHome 1157
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 11/10/2025I think if you’re not too picky about what counts as showing something, then there’s very little that can’t be given some kind of an explanation. I think some volume formulae might be the only things 100
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 11/10/2025Depends on how picky you want to be with what counts as showing something is true. You can pretty much always go deeper on the why, in which case it might never be the case (e.g measure theory before area/volume, peano axioms before adding etc) 110
Reposted by Jonathan PayneEd Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 14/09/2025I've written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, urging them to join me in condemning Elon Musk's dangerous remarks inciting violence yesterday. As leaders, we must stand together and make clear Musk will face serious consequences for these actions. 33569361857
Reposted by Jonathan PayneEd Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 14/09/2025Elon Musk openly called for violence on our streets yesterday. I hope politicians from all parties come together to condemn his deeply dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric. Britain must stand united against this clear attempt to undermine our democracy. 25350221488
Reposted by Jonathan PayneRob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 05/09/2025It’s official - “Nigel Farage is right, don’t vote for him” is a demonstrably awful strategy for Labour. Boosts salience of immigration, costs votes on the left, doesn’t persuade any voters on right (why would they accept a crap knock-off when they can have the original?) 24515179
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 29/08/2025I know the usual thing is to point out interesting properties of the *current* year, but interesting to note that 2027 (+2029) will be the first twin prime year for 30 years 000
Reposted by Jonathan PayneMark Ferguson MP @markfergusonmp.bsky.social · 28/08/2025This is my flag. 1241503422
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 04/07/2025And overall difficulty is of course definitely above what would ever be expected at GCSE 110
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 04/07/2025I think calling it 'just-about GCSE level' was a bit too much of a stretch! Thought was that something like 'prove that the square of an odd number is one more than a multiple of 4' doesn't require any mod arithmetic heavy-lifting. 130
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 04/07/2025The most surprising thing doing this was what the product of the gradients of the tangents is in terms of a, b and c 130
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 04/07/2025Was playing with generalising a question from the new Edexcel EMC when I cam across this interesting fact. Nice to be able to come up with a question which combines algebraic proof and coordinate geometry. All just-about GCSE level 4265
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 20/06/2025It's from the textbook for Edexcel's new L2 Extended Maths Certificate 000
Jonathan Payne @drpmaths.bsky.social · 20/06/2025Pretty significant misconception to be stating as fact in an official textbook from an exam board 220