# The Flying Colours Maths Blog: Latest posts

## Silly Questions Amnesty

That'll be the last SQA in April, that will. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?

## Why is the volume of a pyramid what it is?

My podcast co-host Dave Gale asked an interesting question: why is the volume of a pyramid $V=\frac{1}{3}x^2h$? Dave being Dave, he doesn't want to mess around with 3D geometry, so I figured I should find an explanation a smart GCSE student would be able to grasp. I'm going to start

## The Mathematical Ninja’s Ten Coolest Numbers

The Mathematical Ninja took one look at the list of the 10 coolest numbers and scoffed. "Those," he said, "are not the ten coolest numbers." "What are, then?" said the student. "Remember, nothing for cultural significance, so you can't have 42. And no physical constants, so $g$ is out." "I

## Silly Questions Amnesty

Roll up, roll up! Well, that's my lunch ready. Now, how about some silly questions for pudding?

## A reader asks: how long would you last in a casino?

Imagine you go to the casino with \$100 in one-dollar chips and decide to play the roulette wheel. You've nothing better to do; you can stay there as long as you have chips left. How long can you expect to carry on playing? Let's pick on the 50-50 bets (such

## Co-ordinate battleships

A slight change of pace this week: a game rather than a quiz. Can you sink the enemy ships by firing at the right co-ordinates? (If the grid doesn't show up, try refreshing.)         Your guess:

## QTS Skills: Working out a percentage of a number

My colleague Adrian has submitted a guest post in the form of a video explaining how to answer a typical QTS mental arithmetic question on percentages. Adrian? Take it away. Or rather, divide it and multiply it!

## Silly Questions Amnesty

Beep! Sorry, Colin's not in right now. If you have a question he can answer when he gets back, please leave it after the beep. Beep!

## A litany of errors, or James Bloody Grime’s Blasted Logarithms Revisited

Problems worthy of attack/ Prove their worth by fighting back - Anon, often quoted by Erdos. A few weeks ago, James bloody Grime posted a question on logarithms that I had a creditable stab at answering. My first answer, it turned out, was wrong. I corrected it, and wrote up