Why is there no year zero? Maths Day explains all

What do football clubs, post office workers, council staff and orthotists all have in common?

They all use maths – from working out match statistics to deciding on the best routes for mail and gritting rounds, or calculating the best shape for a scoliosis brace.

These were just some of the insights that emerged during a Taking Maths Further day held at Wellington College.

Open to Year 10 students in the Wellington College Student Alliance’s partner schools, the interactive day started with sessions on graph theory and number theory.

Jeff Trim, from MEI, a charity that aims to improve maths education, explained how graph theory is used to decide the best route for a postie to deliver letters or for a gritting truck to salt icy roads most efficiently.

Dan Simpson from the Advanced Maths Support Programme, which ran the day alongside the WCSA, outlined many ways maths can help in a career, and an orthotist explained how she had to calculate angles correctly in order to make a spinal brace for a patient.

Mathematician Ben Sparks, whose videos on YouTube channel Numberphile have been watched over 12 million times, talked about where numbers came from, why you can’t divide by zero, why a piece of A4 has such odd dimensions and how there is no year zero between 1BC and 1AD.

The day ended with a closely-fought quiz where students competed against each other to build a picture of a dragon by getting maths questions right, with Collingwood College taking the prize ( see main picture).

Teacher Lee Mason from Robert May’s School said: “It was so nice to see maths put in a practical light for the students and to get them engaged in maths activities that they would not normally come across in lessons.”

Teacher Natasha Loversidge from Collingwood College added: “It has been so interactive. My pupils have really thrived today. They have got so engaged and I think they have surprised themselves.”

The event was run by the Wellington College Learning Alliance and AMSP and partner schools involved included Tomlinscote, Edgbarrow and The Forest.