Harry’s 2024 Christmas Miscellany

Christmas wouldn’t be complete without Sherlock Holmes, and the story linked to the left is both the most mathematical and the most controversial! Did Holmes miss something in his analysis of the tyre tracks, or was he just simplifying his explanation for Watson? You can read the story and decide for yourself. And if you want a mathematician’s point of view, take a look at the explanation here.

Does your table wobble? Could that ruin Christmas lunch? Then watch this fabulous Numberphile video for a fix. You could use the time honoured “napkin under one of the legs” method instead, but that’s engineering, not maths, and I think you might like the solution described here more. If you have a taste for this sort of thing you could also watch a Simpson’s flavoured explanation by Mathologer.

We think you will enjoy John’s twisted interpretation of the guards puzzle, and if you like his view of the world, you might also want to try his extraordinary new murder mystery! It’s a more a game than a story and is not for the faint-hearted. We can’t give it away (the poor man has to eat!) but here is a link in case you want to spend some Christmas money!

Christmas is a time for cosy jumpers, music and love. If the flickering fire, low light and crisp winter air are making you feel geeky AND romantic then perhaps this famous (infamous?) recording by a finite group of musically gifted mathematicians from Northwestern will be just the ticket. There are other recordings of this song, some including slides, but I have soft spot for this one.

Unless you have a PhD in mathematics you won’t get many of the jokes, and even if you do, some of them will probably be outside your field, but it has a real feel good vibe and maybe it will inspire you to join us at Southampton and learn what they mean.

For those who prefer their audio in the form of a podcast, this one, Top Secret Misinformation, covers some of the long hidden facts about life at Bletchley Park. Want to know what codes and ciphers defeated the codebreakers in the war? Find out from David Kenyon and Bletchley Park’s Head of Content, Erica Munro. Great for a Boxing Day wind down after a brisk walk.

If you missed Hannah’s brilliant Royal Institution Christmas lectures in 2019, then here is a chance to catch up. In this lecture she asks whether there are problems that mathematics can’t solve. We will leave her to answer that.

There is a lot of mathematics in juggling and Harry has always loved it.

In the first video one of the world’s best club jugglers will mesmerise you with his skill, and perhaps confuse you with the strange algebraic notation above the video. In the second the Gandinis explain the basics of siteswap notation used to describe the patterns.

Skylark has been part of the cipher challenge family for many years, and we are delighted that they have agreed to set a puzzle just for us! You can usually find their work at major newspapers like The Guardian, Times and Telegraph and ike most setters and all spooks, they work in conditions of great secrecy, so we won’t give away any names here, but if you make it to our prize giving event at Bletchley there is every chance you might meet them!

Across

• 1 Producing once, holding chasing United info (13)
• 11 Pia brought back strange docked animal lacking feet (4)
• 12 Gape outwardly about eternity (4)
• 13 Disease harms cool Henri, unhappily (13)
• 14 Check Hazel misses acting (4)
• 15 Enzyme ruins bean, Diana, regularly (5)
• 16 American savours old songs, staff recalled (5)
• 18 Proof contest rushed eighth at back (7)
• 21 Bitter and sour plant Barton priced in centre (7)
• 22 Internal rot in Apple? Debt’s finally permitted (4)
• 24 Put phage by chest (4)
• 27 Scoundrel, race about grabbing Commanding Officer’s liqueur (7)
• 29 Sure, hint drunk’s puny (7)
• 30 Uncovering lies among mail, postulate (5)
• 31 Cleans antique bits of armour (5)
• 35 Recess in church Oscar initially enters to copy (4)
• 37 Universal trainee advanced, Tina left outside Dover (13)
• 38 Poet beginning to enjoy Chianti? (4)
• 39 Top master cutting bone (4)
• 40 Absurdity Observer lessens, section’s reorganized (13)

Down

• 1 Fruit made Morse brainier (13)
• 2 Alice kept out of sight in elevated health resort (6)
• 3 Disgusting kinky opening blocks denial a little (7)
• 4 Estate run field of floating ice (4)
• 5 Caper about carrying Ecstasy pouches in LA (4)
• 6 Strikes tax historical bar (4)
• 7 Ready for harvest early once, excellent, shared first of endives (8)
• 8 Idol’s company enters inn (4) 
• 9 Stating teased about ministry (6)
• 10 Troll stinks hiding a thousand large potholes (13)
• 12 Although extensive, fills pair of huts (8, 3 words)
• 17 Devoted missing reed bag (3)
• 18 Old cheat’s cooked, chew base of chilli inside (5)
• 19 Academy rally around ring divided into small areas (8)
• 20 Southern local’s piecework rips, losing wages, initially stammers (8)
• 23 California fool’s in Mayo, appalling (3)
• 25 Want Asian money cutting ABC by writer at last (7)
• 26 Dandy accepting Ken’s inspiration in Spain (6)
• 28 Gasp, finally almost bewildering upset Turkish soldiers (6) 
• 32 Scot’s bound upwards, blags (4)
• 33 Imbecile missing deal, unlimited dye (4)
• 34 Clad earl’s bushy head of hair (4)
• 36 Eats greedily, giving grand for new games (4)

This is definitely a bit hardcore for Christmas, but it is traditional for Santa to put a book in the stocking and this looks really interesting. Quantum computers give cryptographers nightmares, but they are adapting fast, with amazing new cipher systems based on elliptic curves, lattices and other deep ideas from pure mathematics. If you want to get started in this area, you could do worse than dip into this book! We are grateful to the author, Yuli Billig and to Indianna U for making it available. We have downloaded it in case the link breaks, but you can find the original at https://legacy.cs.indiana.edu/~dgerman/2020/boot-camp/qc-high-2e-with-cover.pdf