By Zaynab Choudhury (Lower Sixth, IB)
On Thursday 4th December 2025, 11 Lower Sixth maths students braved the fierce downpour to the University of Warwick for Maths in Action, exploring real-world applications through five lectures by leading academics.
Dr Katherine Holmes opened with decision trees, showing how yes/no choices shape machine-learning systems through the deceptively simple question of selecting a cup of tea. Nicole Cozens followed with exam skills, emphasizing that clear working and calculator fluency can make or break solutions. Dr Nicholas Jackson introduced DNA topology, explaining how knot theory describes the twisting double helices and how topoisomerases reshape them during replication.
After lunch, Alison Kiddle explored the geometry of knitting, revealing why stitches rarely form neat squares and punchcard-coded circles become ellipses. Her mathematical approach to a hobby resonated with me as an avid crocheter who applies maths when designing projects. The extensive calculations involved are rather like an IA, scarily relevant to all IB students!
Dr Jennifer Visser-Rogers examined statistics in medicine and extreme-event prediction, explaining how uncertainty affects vaccine trials and why correlation is mistaken for causation. Her striking example: Hurricane Milton's 18.32 inches of rain made it not a 1-in-1000-year event, but 1-in-11,000, demonstrating how statistical thinking transforms our view of rare events.
The standout was Dr Tom Crawford's enthusiastically chaotic 'Pokémaths'. Using physical modelling and thermodynamics, he revealed mathematical absurdities: Charizard needs 42 Big Macs daily to fuel its fire; Pikachu's Thunderbolt would obliterate lightbulbs; and Wailord, less dense than air at 1.04kg/m³, would float 600m above the ocean like a confused blimp. Meanwhile, 53 Magcargo could power the UK, each radiating 1200MW while consuming 1267 Mars bars per second! His blend of humor and real mathematics was unforgettable and genuinely inspiring.
The trip reminded us that maths quietly runs the universe, and life becomes far more entertaining when viewed through a mathematical lens, even if it means discovering your favourite Pokémon is basically a floating helium blimp.
