My Fascination With Mathematics Fuelling My Desire To Study Math At University

My passion for mathematics strengthened upon reading ‘Alex’s Adventures in Numberland’. Alex Bellos highlighted how in our daily lives we entwine the notion of mathematics through cardinality and ordinality. This brought me to reflect on a life without Mathematics. It is paramount to our understanding of the world around us and without even using Arabic numerals we live life using abstract numerical forms. Being such a powerful substance pushes me to study it at University and discover the depth of a subject that progresses humanity. Having attended various lectures such as ‘Women in Science Day’ and ‘Further Maths – What Next?’ at Oxford University, a particular lecture was ran by Dr Vicky Neale, which revealed the depth and subtlety of prime numbers. Inspired by this, I went on to read her book ‘Closing the Gap: The Quest to Understand Prime Numbers’, which enlightened me on how a simple concept of natural numbers that we learn as children can also contain some of the world’s most challenging problems such as the Twin Primes and Goldbach’s Conjecture.

I believe that a Mathematics degree will assist my interest to further explore the mysteries of number theory so that in the future I am equipped with the potential to help contribute to unsolved projects. Whilst on the ‘Problem Solving Matters’ course at Oxford University, I was recommended to watch a Horizon television programme on the most famously solved conjecture – Fermat’s Last Theorem. This fuelled my interest to study number theory. How two binary opposite ideas of elliptical curves and modular forms can be linked to help solve an algebraic equation, transcends the depth of Mathematics that not even the greatest mathematicians have explored. The Homerton College Maths Summer School at Cambridge University predominantly focused on combinatorics and probability, teaching how to use “stars and bars” and the pigeon hole principle. However also showed to finishing with going through the proof of Fermat’s Little Theorem.

A major driving force to discovering what mathematics is like beyond A-level, was participating in residential summer schools. Experiencing a deeper understanding of life as an undergraduate and being shown an insight into the subject I wish to pursue at University with other people that share the same passion as me was incomparable. The Headstart Mathematics course held at Lancaster University was based on exploring shapes and space thus, introducing me to many new concepts including discrete geometry, fractals and my specific team’s project of tiling. We researched a famous aperiodic tiling known as Penrose tiling and had to prove that as the tiling patch size increases, the ratio of one type of tile to the other tile approaches the “golden ratio”. I found this fascinating and independently researched that the golden ratio appears in nature all the time. The most popular example being flowers, which use it to spread their petals, to acquire the best possible exposure to sunlight.

At school, I am a prefect and a Maths Captain and help organise Maths help sessions for younger year groups as well as attend 11+ and Sixth form open evenings to answer any questions parents or prospectus students have about Mathematics. I also partake yearly in the UKMT gaining certificates in the junior, immediate and senior challenges for the past six years. During year 9, I was put forward to sit my Mathematics GCSE achieving an A*, which pushed me to sit an FSMQ in year 10. I was very gratified receiving the top grades as I had to work independently outside of school to finish the course in one year. During my free time, I volunteer and help teach year 6 gifted and talented children Maths at the Buckingham primary school. I have always been fond of solving puzzles, which lead me to become a member of Mensa in 2013. Additionally, I love to travel around the world to learn about other cultures.