# The Flying Colours Maths Blog: Latest posts

## Ask Uncle Colin: A STEP in the right direction

Dear Uncle Colin, I'm struggling with a STEP question. Any ideas? Given: 1. $q^2 - pr = -3k$ 2. $r^2 - qp = -k$ 3. $p^2 - rq = k$ Find p, q and r in terms of k. - Simultaneous Triple Equation Problem Hi, STEP, and thanks for your

## A curve-sketching masterclass

An implicit differentiation question dealt with $y^4 - 2x^2 + 8xy^2 + 9 = 0$. Differentiating it is easy enough for a competent A-level student - but what does the curve look like? That requires a bit more thought. My usual approach to sketching a function uses a structure I

## Ask Uncle Colin: fourth roots

Dear Uncle Colin, How would you find $\sqrt[4]{923521}$ without a calculator? -- Some Quite Recherché Technique Hi, SQRT! I have a few possible techniques here. The first is "do some clever stuff with logarithms", the second is "do some clever stuff with known squares" and the last is "do some

## Wrong, But Useful: Episode 45

In this episode of Wrong, But Useful1: We're joined by @ajk_44, who is Alison Kiddle from NRICH in real life. We ask Alison: how long has NRICH been going? How do you tell which problems you've covered before? Colin's number of the podcast is 13,532,396,179 (he mistakenly calls it quadrillions

## Some Thoughts On EdExcel 9-1 GCSE Paper 1

I imagine, if one put one's mind to it, one could acquire copies of this year's paper online - however, many schools plan to use it as a mock for next year's candidates. In view of that, and at the request of my top-secret source, I'm not sharing the actual

Dear Uncle Colin, I've been asked to solve Chebyshev's equation using a series expansion: $(1-x)\diffn{2}{y}{x} - x\dydx + p^2 y = 0$ assuming $y=C_0 + C_1 x + C_2 x^2 + ...$. I end up with the relation $C_{N+2} = \frac{C_N \left(N^2 -p^2\right)}{(N+2)(N+1)}$, but the given answer has a +

## Sum summary: update

This is a rolling update post for responses to this morning's post. The Admirable Adam Atkinson has emailed to suggest an answer I hadn't considered: 100. "I could imagine many programming languages would say 100. You start with the first term, 100. discover that the "next" number, 101, is outside

## A Summary Of Some Summery Summation

"Counting is hard. This is what I keep saying." - @realityminus3 It all stemmed from an arithmetic series problem with a known sum, but an unknown number of terms. As these things are prone to do, it led to a quadratic equation; as those things are prone to do, that

## Ask Uncle Colin: Powers and polar form

Dear Uncle Colin, I've been given $u = (2\sqrt{3} - 2\i)^6$ and been told to express it in polar form. I've got as far as $u=54 -2\i^6$, but don't know where to take it from there! - Not A Problem I'm Expecting to Resolve Hello, NAPIER, and thanks for your

## How Would Martin Gardner Prove It?

Someone recently asked me where I get enough ideas for blog posts that I can keep up such a 'prolific' schedule. (Two posts a week? Prolific? If you say so.) The answer is straightforward: Twitter Reddit One reliable source of interesting stuff is @WWMGT - What Would Martin Gardner Tweet?