So, I agreed to give a talk at the Hay Festival about Mathematics. I have to admit that when I agreed to this, I was a little worried. What if no one came? What if no one understood? Or worse still, what if no one cared?
Discussing maths queries like how to complete a pub crawl most efficiently, if we’re really separated by just six degrees, and how Facebook makes friend recommendations, is maths that’s relevant to every day life though.
As it turned out, the event was a sell out and had to be moved to a bigger stage. I’ve found out that Hay is a great place to communicate science to the public.
Unlike my students, they even laughed at some of my jokes…