But don't just take my word for it - what about the famous actress Cate Blanchett? ( Did you see her starring in the movie "Elizabeth"? She was awesome. She was great in "Lord of the Rings" too.)
Cate says:
"Acting was always my second choice, as a kid I wanted to be an economist. The thrill
of solving a mathematical equation - I rarely did it but I would literally
jump from my seat in the middle of the class and scream when I'd got it right!"
So take a few minutes and look up some of these sites. By the way, you'll notice how chic and glamorous Cate looks - but can you see anybody else on this page who looks like her? Whaddya mean NO? O.k. limp brains I'll give you some clues: yellow spotty coat, beret, lipstick....
 Look out for our STAR sites - these are our favourites!  |
My Maths This fabulous site asks you to log in and use a password, but if you ignore that and just click "games" there's a lot of really neat things to try. We especially liked the angle challenge where you score points by drawing angles to the nearest degree with your mouse!
AHA! Puzzles Look at these pages for some of Lloyd King's mind stretching puzzles! And when you see the answers you're supposed to say "Aha!".
Levitated WOW - just try it! Click on one of the strange little thumbnail pictures you see, and then a big version will be mathematically generated on your screen, and often you can control it with your mouse.
We don't understand it at all but it's total and utter fun.
Play Pentominoes In "More Murderous Maths" there's a section about pentominoes. There are several websites which let you play with them on your screen and although this one might not be the flashiest, we think it's the one that works best.
Make Your Own Pascal's Triangle ... up to almost any number of rows you like!
The Self-Colouring Pascal's Triangle A really neat demonstration of how patterns appear, with lots of bits you can play with.
Mathematics Enrichment The name might sound a bit boring, but if you like a real challenge, try some of the brainteasers on this site.
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Tantrix Tantrix is a really neat game which involves putting together hexagonal tiles to make patterns. You can either buy it off the site (it makes a great present for anyone) or you can join the Tantrix network and play online.
The British Origami Site Grab some coloured paper and have fun folding it into curious shapes or making intriguing patterns.
Don't forget
Professor Fiendish's Tricks and Games page on this site!
Interesting sites
Kjartan Poskitt's site Lots of useless rubbish from the Murderous Maths author who also writes plays and invents puzzles. You can also book him to turn up to events via this site.
DR MATH'S Articles Steve Humble ( also known as Dr Maths ) writes really interesting and varied articles for the NE Evening Chronicle. They include coin tricks, fractals and puzzles - it's well worth browsing through some of them!
Nick Arnold's Website - the author of the Horrible Science series. |
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Tony De Saulles's Website - Tony illustrates all the Horrible Science books. Nick Arnold keeps him very busy!
Watch Tony show how to draw cartoons here on YouTube!
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Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Website - the main illustrator of the MM series and of couse, the author of the extremely successful MORTAL ENGINES books!
Anita Ganeri's Wicked World Tour Our friend Anita writes the HORRIBLE GEOGRAPHY books and lots of others!
Trevor Dunton's Site Find out more about the illustrator of the very first MM book, and try some of Trevor's hilarious flash animations. "Burp Day" was our favourite!
THE PI SONG! A very funny little song and video about PI.
There is also a longer version without video.
The PI Factory ...looks a bit serious at first because it's got sponsors like Tesco's and BP, but have a quick look round and you'll see tons of really interesting stuff including bits on art and sound, weekly puzzles and - we have to admit it - they've also got a far better links page than this one!
Gallery of Mathematical Images Here's a selection of amazing pictures
(including a couple that you can play with) which come from fancy maths equations. The site
tries to explain how the pictures arrive, but you need to be cleverer than us to understand
what they're talking about! Well worth a look though.
Details of
Kjartan Poskitt's amazing book
illustrated by Steven Appleby.
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Look at this picture of the three (or is it two?) columns. This is actually a photo of a real model! |
Grand Illusions An illusion site with some neat tricks too.
(Try the
"CO2" party trick - it's ingenious!)
The Scholastic Zone Scholastic are a minor subsiduary of the Murderous Maths Organisation. They are in charge of printing the MM books, and they also do other series including the Horrible Histories, Horrible Science, Killer Puzzles, The Knowledge, Goosebumps, Dead Famous and loads more.
Count On Over the millennium the Maths 2000 organisation set up some amazing events - now the same team have re-named themselves "Count On" and they run this site which is full of good stuff including a MASSIVE links sections to try.
Wordpool These people make great efforts to list all the best books for young people, and there are even interviews with all the different authors.
Sites to help with maths
Maths Forum This site has the answers to all sorts of maths questions.
We often use it to deal with the weird and wonderful enquiries we get. This is probably the most useful link on this page!
Mad 4 Maths A superb animated site dealing with maths for kids aged 6-10 with sections for kids, teachers and parents.
Andrew Jeffrey is a really neat magician/maths teacher who does excellent shows in schools suitable for key stages 1-4.
Mathletts are a set of really attractive games involving boards and cards which make practising numbers and sums into fun.
Maths Homework Help ...has been made by Constantinos Coudounaris who is working extremely hard to give lots of help, exercises and downloadable worksheets for people trying to learn about maths at home.
Cool Math For Kids A wonderful and colourful site from the US packed with interesting features.
Hattie the Maths Clown We've met Hattie several times at festivals
and we like her a lot. As well as having some great tricks involving paper
folding, bubbles and numbers, she brings a real bit of colour to the place!
She also understands all the demands of the different key stages and how
to help kids of different abilities. This site explains what she can do for you.
Captain Astounding's Nightclub This site has access to some new, clever, colourful books that have a new approach to maths that we really like.
Counting Cards This is a neat system involving cards and number games to teach kids about place value up to 1,000,000 and help with adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.
Tarquin Mathematics These people can sell you a fabulous range of maths stuff including games, stencils, posters, and an amazing selection of great books - most of which are very colourful and have interesting activities to do. Their web page tells you what they've got.
Prim-Ed Publishing This site's for primary teachers or home educators. Prim-Ed have lots of useful books for helping people who are just starting out in maths.
Mathematical Association ...is a sort of club for maths teachers which has been going since 1871. They have a massive range of resources, publications and back-up stuff to help you.
Dr Maths Steve Humble is a maths expect and consultant with some amazing tricks and interesting presentations. He's available for school visits or other maths help.
