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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Thoroughly enjoyed today’s Great North Run. Apparently it's the biggest half marathon in the world. It must also be one of the best. Amazing organisation. I was pleased with 1hr 25min 00sec too.

Great North Run finishers' shirt and medal

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

If you search for 'Meghan' on the Daily Telegraph website, all of the stories are (unsurprisingly) about her/Harry. On 19 and 20 August there were 22 articles. Seems like a lot.

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Hello do you need some Wholesome Content this morning?

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Chalk that off if you can! Cmon Spain!

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I love the way Mbappe was laughing at the Paraguayans who behaved so disgracefully. Good for him.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

What is the best iPad app for sheet music? And what size iPad do you need to make it work well? (I'm finally ready to join the 21st century!) @cantabkitty.bsky.social @mathemusician.bsky.social

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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Cool. My electric mixer stirs faster than my finger

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Stuart Lock @stulock.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

They’ve got a strait, tbf.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

On the train to attend the first @amiemathematics.bsky.social Member Day. Looking forward to it!

AMiE member day advert for Sat 11 April 2026 in London

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Some interesting things to think about in this report. Raises lots of questions too. (Eg: are there similar responses to other subjects?)

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Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Sooooooo true!🤷‍♀️

A humorous commentary on April 1st suggesting it's the only day people critically assess online information.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I've been enjoying some OCR GCSE maths questions. Not sure about this one, though. #MathsToday

$Nov 2024 GCSE Paper 6 (Higher tier) from OCR GCSE maths exam. 8 equations are given and candidates need to identify which of them describes the two given graphs. The first is fine (a fractional exponential). The second gives the first quadrant of a circle, which doesn't match with any of them. The closest is y = the square root of (4-squared subtract x^2) but this would give a semi-circle.$

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

At first glance, a driven journey of half an hour is better than a 90-min train ride. But given that the Telegraph journalist spent an hour in the car and her husband half an hour, it was actually the same length of time for both car and for train. #MathsToday !

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

But circle theorems rock! The musicians and poets should definitely study them.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

1T indicates that Wales have scored 1 try. This is not necessary, because the only way to score 7 pts is via a try. What is the smallest ambiguous rugby (union) score? The biggest unambiguous one? [Try = 5pts, Conversion (only following a try) = 2pts, Penalty/drop-goal = 3pts] #MathsToday

Screenshot from ITV Sport showing England vs Wales rugby score, with Wales having 7 points and 1T written above this.
At the time of 55:45, England had 36 points, and have BP above their score to indicate they have a Bonus Point for scoring at least 4 tries.
The yellow rectangle with 4:52 shows the amount of time one of their players still has to serve in the sinbin.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Still reeling after the theme tune from The Bill was changed from the iconic 7/4 original. Now this.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Just seen the Liechtenstein national anthem. Surprising tune!

Sheet music for the melody of the Liechenstein national anthem, with its German words. The tune is the same as God save the King.

From Wiki
By Jakob Josef Jauch, Henry Carey - liechtenstein.li, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9042230

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Catriona Agg @catrionaagg.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Genuinely one of my proudest moments. bsky.app/profile/catr...

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Disappointing that BBC Sport didn't put "(TEN)" after the Man City score.

Screenshot from BBC Sport showing Man City 10 - 1 Exeter City in the FA Cup.
In the 1980s on a Sat evening they would have a vide-printer that showed the results as matches finished. Any outlandishly large score would have the number in brackets afterwards, to make it clear it wasn't a misprint.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

I've just signed up for this. 5 twilights (Zoom) and a course day (travel and cover are funded). AMSP courses have a tradition of being superb. What's not to like! #MathsToday

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Ben Sparks @sparksmaths.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Come for the maths and stay for the ethical discussions. :)

Quote from the film Jurassic Park, where Ian Malcolm says: "Scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Have spent far too long thinking about this. Don't know if I like it or not! (Far too many 'thirds' knocking about ... )

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Article about a planned sculpture (near Coleshill). Fails to mention that it’s a Möbius band. news.sky.com/story/mother...

Artist/AI impression of a proposed sculpture to be made of a million bricks that is a massive Möbius band.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Best thing I've seen this year. Just brilliant.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Interesting graph showing a massive disconnect between median and mean averages. The median is about 0.4 drinks per week, whereas the mean is 9.8 drinks per week.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I am old enough to remember when the first couple of Google results were all you ever needed. Now you get this...

Google search for "literary anniversaries 2026" begins with this AI production:
2026 marks major literary milestones, including the 100th death anniversary of poet Rainer Maria Rilke, 160 years since Beatrix Potter's birth (creator of Winnie-the-Pooh) with celebrations planned for Pooh's 100th book anniversary, and significant events for Agatha Christie (50 years since death)

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Many congratulations to @bobbyseagull.bsky.social on his MBE! To see someone who so freely gives of their time to support important educational causes being recognised in this way is really positive.

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Emily Rae @ecrmaths.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

I agree. It's maybe easy for me to say as a long-time atheist, but I think in the UK there are two Christmasses that sit side-by-side. There's the religious Christmas, with all the church and nativity imagery, then there's secular Christmas which is basically a celebration of family and friends.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

News story in the Times that says every secondary school will have to offer triple sciences at GCSE (though not all pupils will have to do them). One of the images used to illustrate the story? The usual sort of nonsense...

Photograph (seemingly) of a teacher standing at a whiteboard. Pupils in the class (aged lower secondary school or upper primary) have their hands raised. The board shows mathematics including the cosine rule, other trigonometry, the discriminant of a quadratic, the zeta function, some calculus and various graphs.
Utter nonsense, particularly given the article is about science teaching.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Half marathon in Surrey today. 'The Hurt' was well named (not used to all the hills). But lots of fun.

Steep uphill track in Hurtwood Forest near Guildford.

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Catriona Agg @catrionaagg.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

In #MathsToday I made 40 A Level teachers colour in representations of the binomial distribution. This is your regular reminder that if you teach #ALevelMaths you should definitely try to join your local Maths Hub’s A Level Pedagogy group. There is some brilliant stuff going on all over England.

A quartet of representations of the binomial distributions. Screenshots from https://www.desmos.com/calculator/3ea50eafbc

X ~B (10, 0.4)
Shade the diagrams to represent the probability
P(3 ≤X <6)
and draw a numberline.

X~B(10,0.4)
Shade the diagrams to represent the probability P(3 ≤ X < 6) and draw a
numberline.

X ~ B(8, 0.7)
Which is larger:
P(X < 5) or P(X = 6)?

X~B(12,0.36)
P(X ≥ c) < 0.5
What is the smallest possible value of c?

X~B(10,0.4)
Calculate the interquartile range of this distribution.
What is the mode?

X~B(8, 0.7)
P(X ≤ a) < 0.1
What is the largest possible value of a?
P(X ≥ b) < 0.1
What is the smallest possible value of b?

X~B(12,0.36)
P(X ≤ a) < 0.2
What is the largest possible value of a?
P(X ≥ b) < 0.2
What is the smallest possible value of b?

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

In #MathsToday (in fact, #MathsRightNow at the #RyderCup ), the official website shows the state of play and also gives predicted percentages for each possible result in each match. Any comments on the predictions?

Ryder Cup 2025: Day 1, afternoon session, match 4 of the four-balls.
Burns and Cantlay (USA) are playing McIlroy and Lowry (Europe).
After 7 completed holes, Europe are 2 up.
The predicted outcome bar has a 60% chance of Europe winning the match (after 18 holes), a 15% of a halved hole and a 25% chance of USA winning.

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Tommaths (he/him) @teakayb.mathsy.space · 29/07/2025

If you *were* interested, a really good thing you could do is follow me in case I announce something. Also, it would only work if a good core of enthusiastic folk from both teams engaged with it, so sharing this post would let more people know about it.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

@teachertapp.bsky.social sent me this. Scary to realise hope much time I have spent on the app. There are 1440 mins in a day. So if I have spent a minute each day Tapping then that's more than a full day in total. (Not that this realisation will make me stop, obvs!)

An image showing a 2,000 day streak on Teacher Tapp, with the number inside a shield that is on fire.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

The @telegraphnews.bsky.social keeps using this graph showing private school fee increases. According to their figures, from 1986 to 2024 (ignoring the 2025 increase) school fees have multiplied by 9.6 (so fees of £3000 in 1986 would be 3000 x 9.6 = £28,000 in 2024). /1

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

This is key. It would have been possible just to copy down the answers from the back of the book. Did pupils do that? Maybe some of them did. At A-level there was certainly no point, because students (should) want to understand and (should) realise that copying the answers doesn't help with that.

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Mark Dawes @mdawesmdawes.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

It was very useful to see this on BlueSky. This email was rejected by the spam filter on the school email system. I have now had messages from ATM unblocked, so will receive messages immediately in future. (And I managed to get hold of this one too.) I hope that hasn't happened to other members.

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