Author: Shub Das

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New Year, Old Confusion

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Every January, without fail, I write the date down wrong at least once. That’s expected. But what’s less expected is that my brain occasionally still wants December to be the tenth month. Which, objectively, it isn’t, but linguistically? It kind of is. The names of the months don’t quite line up with their positions. September meaning seven, October eight, November nine, December ten, and once you notice it, you can’t unsee it. So, naturally, I wanted to know why does the year start in January, and why are the months misnumbered? As it turns out, the answer is not mathematical elegance, but rather Roman bureaucracy.

Six Arms, Infinite Outcomes: how snowflakes balance symmetry and uniqueness

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There's a claim about snowflakes that's repeated so often it starts to feel axiomatic: no two are alike. It's one of those facts that sits quietly in the back of your mind. You don’t question it. You just accept it, file it away, and move on. I don't remember where I heard it first, but … Continue reading Six Arms, Infinite Outcomes: how snowflakes balance symmetry and uniqueness

Why is A4 Paper… A4?

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It’s getting to that time of the semester again, the part where your brain is somewhere between tired and trying its best, and every test paper starts to look the same. And sometimes, when I’m staring at an exam I’m meant to be focusing on, my mind wanders into questions that have nothing1 to do with the module I’m sitting. The other day, one such thought hit me: why is this sheet of paper, this exact A4 sheet in front of me, the size it is? Why 297 × 210 mm? Why not a nice round 300 × 200? Why not squares? A4 is everywhere from worksheets, lecture notes, problem sheets, printer trays, so if we use it constantly, surely there must be a reason for its exact shape. And even then, what does the ‘A’ even stand for in A4? Are there B4s and C4s? (Spoiler: Yes)

On the Statistical Properties of the Paranormal Distribution

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It was around this time, three years ago, that I first heard the words "Paranormal Distribution" on a Teams call. So in the spirit1 of Halloween, here's a brief exploration of the Paranormal Distribution, a (super)natural extension of the Gaussian model that describes data unexplainable by conventional statistics. The normal distribution, or Gaussian curve, underpins … Continue reading On the Statistical Properties of the Paranormal Distribution

Becoming a ‘Mathemagician’: The 27 Card Trick

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I love a deck of cards. It's amazing to think about all the things that can be done with cards- from card games to building a house of cards to just shuffling mindlessly. One of my absolute favourite things1 is learning and performing card tricks. There's something deeply satisfying about sleight-of-hand tricks which can leave … Continue reading Becoming a ‘Mathemagician’: The 27 Card Trick

The National Cipher Challenge – More Than Just Codebreaking

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I’ve been meaning to write about how I got into codebreaking, so here’s the start of a small series on maths, ciphers, and curiosity. A lot of experiences have shaped the curious, questioning person I am today, but I wasn’t always like this.  Looking back, one of the biggest turning points came in Year 10, … Continue reading The National Cipher Challenge – More Than Just Codebreaking