Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 27/09/2026Such a wonderful time-saver and great research tool, these #genAI chatbots. 🙄 074
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 24/08/2026Went to the Boole memorial in Lincoln. Boole is teaching two children some logic. One has a slate labelled “ALICIA”, his daughter’s name. Any ideas why the other is labelled “TAD”? (It amused me that while Tad is copying from the board, Alicia, who became a 4D geometer, is drawing some geometry.) 2154
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 05/08/2026The new issue of The Mathematical Gazette has arrived! My second as editor. 😁 My editorial discusses what the journal is about and who reads it. It and six other articles from the issue are free to read online here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/tmgz20/1... @amiemathematics.bsky.social 0122
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 27/07/2026You can trust quality that’s built on careful attention to detail. 080
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 23/07/2026I continue to wonder about utility of #genAI. I gave Claude some text I wrote and asked it to find and add suitable references. In the response it gave some warnings that straight-up assumed I am a student cheating on an assignment. 🤯 130
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 19/07/2026My son got a calculator for secondary school in the autumn, so we took it for a test. He drew a series of triangles and measured the sides, then worked out their ratios and plotted them. Then we tried some other buttons on the calculator and discovered sin, cos and tan make the same values! #tmwyk 0161
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 03/07/2026What is The Mathematical Gazette about? Who is it for? I discuss this, drawing on words from previous editors, in my editorial for the new issue. Free to access here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 083
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 02/07/2026What on earth happened here? This is earlier today. I was at a bus stop in a village about 7.5 miles from Nottingham and asked Google Maps for public transport directions to Nottingham. 130
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 11/06/2026Maths on Holiday - new issue of the IMA members’ magazine, in which I wrote about David Singmaster’s Gazeteer, Green’s Windmill, that time Sam Hansen came to town, etc. 020
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 08/06/2026Quick update from #BeachSpectres from @ayliean.bsky.social - join Finite Group for free to access the video. patreon.com/posts/beach-... 183
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 06/05/2026Just spotted a new edition of the Comprehensive LaTeX Symbols List has been published and it contains my package customdice! ctan.org/pkg/comprehe... 0476
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 30/04/2026Went to Green’s Windmill this evening for a members’ event. All wrapped up for major repairs to redo the cap and sails. Visitor numbers understandably down this year. Donations to help welcome: www.greensmill.org.uk/support-us/d... 010
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 13/04/2026I’m on my way to give a talk to Sheffield U3A’s Science & Technology Group, about board games through the ages with a bit of game theory thrown in. 1111
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 07/04/2026The first issue of The Mathematical Gazette with me as Editor has arrived in the post! Non-subscribers can read my editorial (and some other papers in this issue) for free at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #MathsToday #MTBoS #ITeachMath 062
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 18/03/2026The Gazette has been continuously published since 1894. A history was published in 1996 and now, 30 years later, I'm really pleased my student Amelia Curran has written a new history covering 1894-2025. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 052
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 30/01/2026Pick up a copy of New Scientist this weekend, or go to the website (subscription or via your library), and you’ll find me writing about Snakes and Ladders and analysis of games of chance. 191
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 18/01/2026What’s your answer here? My son got it from school. He said 65. Very boring! I was wondering about 20π. #MathsToday 5110
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 13/01/2026The claim that "just about everyone overestimates their own ability to use everyday numbers" (p.19) which the Telegraph picks up on, is interesting. It refers to this graphic. 40% scored high/very high cf. 60% who thought they would, a pattern across all demographics. Is that "just about everyone"? 250
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 21/12/2025I wrote a puzzle in today’s Sunday Times. Also on the last page of this PDF: extras.thetimes.co.uk/web/public/p... 170
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 11/12/2025"Editor's Choice" 👀 Our paper exploring whether engineering students prefer maths problems in context or not is in the new issue of Teaching Mathematics and its Applications. doi.org/10.1093/team... 040
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 03/12/2025I don’t know how these simple calculators work. My son has noticed if he repeatedly square roots, say, 0.7734 it converges on 0.9999998 but then just sits there. Why does it think √0.9999998=0.9999998? 1101
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 01/12/2025“It's nearly Christmas and something terrible has happened…” Time for the famous @mscroggs.co.uk www.mscroggs.co.uk advent calendar! Good fun — but am I too busy, or will I keep it going this year? Only time will tell! 095
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 21/11/2025At work I’m greeted by the @chalkdustmag.bsky.social with my article in, to learn I’m one of the items listed on the cover - above Taylor Swift (but below microbes)! 0391
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 10/10/2025It’s Mathematics of Life week at New Scientist and my turn to write. I wrote about game theory and the evolution of cooperation in the iterative prisoner’s dilemma. In the magazine this weekend or on the website/app. 140
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 09/10/2025When I woke, my son greeted me with a proposed counterexample to the Four Colour Theorem. He said he’d woken with the idea. 1/2 #tmwyk 171
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 08/10/2025Came home to find the MA’s Mathematical Angles, which includes a spread about me taking over as editor of The Mathematical Gazette. 2191
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 24/09/2025Tomorrow at 12 UK time is the latest Finite Group livestream - Katie @steckl.es and Hana Ayoob on maths of colour. I will be teaching, but there will be a recording available afterwards. Join to take part or watch later: finitegroup.co.uk 010
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 18/09/2025Just found out Academia edu has taken it upon itself to copy one of my open access papers to its site and then used "our AI" to generate a podcast based on the paper. They've added this to settings and it was on by default, which is extremely yuck. Also "AI-generated reviews"? Of my papers? Why? 140
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 01/08/2025I wrote about Mary Everest Boole’s curve stitching, string art, and Bézier curves in this weekend’s New Scientist. 2253
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 06/07/2025I haven't logged into Twitter/X for ages, but I wanted to view some replies on an ancient tweet so did it. There was one thing in my notifications and it's this beautiful mixture of Bitcoin and generative AI nonsense, happily reinforcing that what I've been missing isn't worth having. 171
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 03/07/2025There is a picture of George Green, the mathematician from Nottingham, doing the rounds on the internet. Alas, this is not the right George Green. Details: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1... #MathsHistory #MathsHist #MathsToday 272
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 18/06/2025I'm chatting maths and games with @jamesgrime.com next Wed 25th June 2-3pm BST. Sign up at finitegroup.co.uk#join Either join a paid tier to watch live or join for free & get the option to pay one-off for the recording. Either way gets you into our Discord chat community, a lovely place to be. 045
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 14/06/2025This afternoon we made the pattern on a Lego board and he picked some rules. We used red/pink bricks for alive cells. We made a few iterations until we ran out of time. #tmwyk #MathsToday 0100
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 14/06/2025When was the last time we talked about cellular automata? Months, maybe a year. Anyway, as we came out of a shop earlier, my son said “would the Game of Life be different if it was played on rectangles?” It turns out he was thinking about the floor we were on. So… (next post) #tmwyk #MathsToday 1120
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 05/06/2025Counting sure is hard, Amazon. (Both 1s and the -1 all go to the first page when clicked, and subsequent numbers are boringly sequential.) 050
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 01/06/2025The top of our vacuum cleaner has this on it, which is fascinating as a set of weird data communication choices. 140
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 30/05/2025Hello Google, George Green Snr built the windmill 12 years before Queen Victoria was born, and he died 8 years before she took the throne. 080
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 22/05/2025Looks like the grass needs cutting. I wrote about scheduling in this week’s New Scientist — available on the website and currently in shops. 063
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 08/05/2025Last year I ran a primary school maths puzzles and games club with a local teacher. Our write up covers mathematical magic, variants of Noughts and Crosses and games played on chessboards, tangrams and other geometric tile fun. Free to access on p. 25 here: www.lms.ac.uk/sites/defaul... 0111
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 02/05/2025This is fun. (No context; both ChatGPT and Claude, even though I started a new chat, converted A5 paper to miles for the second query - both gave 0.000092 miles by 0.00013 miles). 030
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 29/04/2025Most of the swag I got from #stecksconf has been requisitioned by my son, including the ‘Plasti-zine’ by @alisonatkin.bsky.social. He made a collection of creatures he says are different forms of a shape-shifting Doctor Who monster he’s made up which he’s named “chromnivore” to mean time eater. 1111
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 25/04/2025Had a nice day at Warwick. My talk closed the conference and also doubled as the weekly department seminar. I discussed my history of maths/maths and society teaching from the diversity and decolonisation perspective. 050
Peter Rowlett @peterrowlett.net · 23/04/2025But sometimes it’s better at stopping itself. I kept getting things like this when I put in something too sensible. 010