Tom Rocks Maths visits Pymble

On Friday 24 May, mathematics students from all year groups were visited by Dr Tom Crawford to present his findings and knowledge in using math to solve everyday problems.

Dr Tom Crawford is a mathematician at the University of Oxford center for continuing education. He studied mathematics at the University of Oxford for four years before completing his PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Cambridge in 2016, studying river-ocean dynamics. He also manages a large social media presence with over one hundred and eighty thousand subscribers on YouTube, making him informally known as ‘Tom Rocks Maths.’

He presented ‘mathematics for modeling in sport’ to students in year seven to nine. This entailed the aerodynamics of marathon running, predicting the future of world records based on graphs, the perfect spot to kick a soccer ball using Pi, as well how the earth’s spin effects rowing and golf. He then presented ‘saving the ocean from pollution using mathematics’ to students in years ten to twelve in which he explained the ways he used mathematics to predict river tides and the way in which pollution was moving out of rivers. This was part of his role working for ‘Team Seas’ ocean clean up where he would advise the location of rubbish in the ocean so that resources and money were being used efficiently for the greatest benefit. He then applied this mathematical theorem to locate the movements of pollution out of the parramatta river, using easily accessible information online to show us how mathematics is relevant in real life.

There was also time for questions at the end where students were thoroughly intrigued into the life and findings of Dr Crawford as well as his fun interest in all things Pokemon and mathematical tattoos! Dr Tom Crawford’s talks were highly insightful and all the girls gained a lot from it.