Can anyone predict price variation on the stock exchange? How do bubbles in Guinness move? What does pregnancy-testing have in common with sunflowers and The Da Vinci Code?
These questions and many more will be answered as part of the first Maths Week Ireland, launched yesterday to promote the understanding, awareness and appreciation of mathematics. It continues until Friday, with venues at more than a dozen third-level institutions around Ireland.
A keynote event yesterday evening was the annual Hamilton mathematics lecture. Organised by the Royal Irish Academy, The Irish Times and Depfa Bank, it featured Prof Ingrid Daubechies of Princeton University, New Jersey. The Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths Science and Technology (Calmast), a Waterford Institute of Technology-based science, maths and technology advocacy and academic group, organised the event.
"Maths is all around us and its principles are applicable to everyday life, whether you are buying a car, following a recipe, saving money in the supermarket or calculating stamp duty when buying a house," Eoin Gill of Calmast said.
Activities planned for the next few days include discussions on the mathematic tactics of conker and dart players, Met Éireann's Gerald Fleming's talk on the maths of weather forecasters tomorrow and the mathematical complexities of artificial intelligence on Thursday. For more information, visit www.calmast.ie.