Public lecture to celebrate Maths Week - October 13, 8pm, Alexander Hotel

robindch

The Irish Skeptics are back for the Autumn/Winter season and begin with a meeting to celebrate Maths Week with Matt Parker.

Matt is a highly enthusiastic Mathematician whose life goal is to make people more excited about Maths. Using a range of presentations and hands-on activities, he communicates Maths in a very engaging and entertaining way. Having worked as a Maths teacher, Matt now also talks about Mathematics for organisations including the Royal Institution and the BBC. He has done stage-shows with Johnny Ball and was the People’s Choice Award in the 2009 national Famelab competition. He is very active in Skeptic circles in England and delivered a highly entertaining talk last year for the ISS.

In this lecture Matt will look at how seemingly incredible results can actually be meaningless random patterns.

What: Clutching at Random Straws
When: Wednesday October 13th at 8.00pm
Where:The Alexander Hotel, Merrion Square, Dublin 2
How much: €3 for members and concessions; €6 for non-members

Hope to see you there!

Zombrex

I'm getting a strange feeling of deja vu :P

Turtwig

I'm not trying to diss the ISS in any way, but I'm just curious as to how many people attend these events? Was the figure last year great than 1,000, or am I being too optimistic?

Zombrex

Malty_T wrote: »

I'm not trying to diss the ISS in any way, but I'm just curious as to how many people attend these events? Was the figure last year great than 1,000, or am I being too optimistic?

rofl

robindch

Malty_T wrote: »

I'm not trying to diss the ISS in any way, but I'm just curious as to how many people attend these events?

We usually get between 80 and 100 people showing up -- slightly less for people speaking on obscure topics, slightly more for more generally interesting ones.

Far as I recall there were few (or no) empty seats available for this guy last year and he certainly delivered an entertaining evening.

robindch

Wicknight wrote: »

rofl

Miaow

amacachi

Wouldn't mind heading to this but I don't ever feel comfortable walking into a hotel in tracksuit stuff. :pac:

bnt

Is this the same guy who did a bit on the More Or Less podcast last week? In that bit he talks about the "micromort" - a 1/1,000,000 chance you'll die today - and how we can use it to judge relative risks. For example, taking a hit of Ecstacy is about as risky as going for a ride in a canoe, apparently!

sponsoredwalk

bnt wrote: »

...and how we can use it to judge relative risks. For example, taking a hit of Ecstacy is about as risky as going for a ride in a canoe, apparently!

I'm studying the wrong maths :pac: Hmm, is this new particular brand of
mathematics an experimental branch?

edit: What are we expecting with this talk, will he extoll the virtues of
mathematics by vaguely talking about how knowledge of maths will
enlighten your inner fish or will he actually get down and dirty?

robindch

bnt wrote: »

how we can use it to judge relative risks

Yes, that sounds like the right guy.

In last year's talk, I remember him pointing out that if somebody was going to buy an Irish lottery ticket, then it was best to do it less than two hours before the draw. Coz any more than two hours, then you're more likely to die than to collect the winnings.

With this talk, I'd imagine he'll refer to Skinner's infamous pigeons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Superstition_in_the_pigeon

robindch

Bump