Anna's Blog
Numbers appear all the time in our lives. I'll use this blog to illustrate how they appear in my daily life and in the wider world.#19: The Pandemic, Prime Numbers and Taxicab Numbers
By September 2022 most people I knew had had COVID-19. In our house we had somehow managed to avoid it. However, come the beginning of October, we had both tested positive and were very ill. Now we have both tested negative and feel quite a bit better but still have...
The Number 55: Fibonacci Numbers & the Role of the Sunflower
Each post that I have written has been inspired by a number that has occurred naturally during my everyday life. My husband, Howard, and I were cycling out for lunch on what may well be the last sunny day of the year in the UK. Our table at our chosen pub just...
8,730: A Shortage of Doctors and Odious Numbers
We don’t have enough doctors in the UK: we’re about 12,000 short of where we (apparently) should be. In 2019, 8,730 students graduated with a medical degree in the UK. There is a cap on the number as the training is subsidised by the government and also the students...
Number 29: Copper Metal, Dubai Travel and Prime Numbers with Interesting Properties
In my previous blog post I described a caravan trip to Anglesey, Wales with my husband (Howard). Anglesey was very famous for its copper mining and we went to Copper Kingdom at Amlwch to look at the museum there, to see how copper is extracted and to see the remains...
Number 40: Harshad Numbers, Keeping Cool and Chicago Cycling
Last month the temperature in the UK rose above 40 degrees Celsius for the first time. Depending on where you live in the world this may not seem very high. But for many of us it caused a great deal of concern. We were worried about vulnerable people and there were...
Number 30: Coprime Numbers, Crete and Food Shows
A couple of weeks ago I went to the BBC Good Food Show at Birmingham NEC with my husband, Howard. This was my first ever visit and I had no idea what to expect. One thing that I did expect (which didn’t happen) was that I’d buy a whole lot of food. To this end I took...
Number 70: Weird Numbers, the City of Naples and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
In early June the United Kingdom spent four days celebrating seventy years of the Queen's service. There were many events going on all over the country – street parties and general fun. In our village we had a party on the field with lots of stalls and some music. A...
Number 139: Twitter polls, Mumbai and Deficient Numbers
One thing I do in my spare time is to help out with the twitter for our local cycling campaign. They are an enthusiastic group and I love being involved with something that is so current. As a keen cyclist (tandem) it’s of great interest to me to see improvements for...
Number 183: A New Fence, Cycling in Belfast and Polite Numbers
Part of our hedge has fallen down and we have bought some green industrial fencing to prop it up: this probably sounds horrible but actually looks quite nice and blends in well with the hedge. In the photo above you can see the wood that is propping up the hedge, but...
Cycling and Seoul Holidays
The evenings are getting lighter by the week and we have taken to going cycling more often. It’s fun to go to a country pub, have a couple of drinks and enjoy the scenery. Last time we cycled out to a pub in the evening there were bar snacks on – about £5/each. They...