Much Ado About Numbers: Shakespeare’s Mathematical Life and Times - Rob Eastaway

Watch the Q&A here: • Q&A: Much Ado About Nu...
Shakespeare lived in a period of exciting mathematical innovations, from arithmetic to astronomy, and from probability to music. Remarkably, many of those innovations are mentioned, or at least hinted at, in his plays. Rob Eastaway will explore the surprising ways in which mathematical ideas connect with Shakespeare and reveals that the playwright could be as creative with numbers as he was with words. Along the way you will discover surprising new mathematical insights on the Elizabethan world.
This lecture was recorded by Rob Eastaway on 9th October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Rob Eastaway is best known as the author of several bestselling popular maths books, including Why Do Buses Come in Threes? and Maths On the Back of an Envelope. With Mike Askew, he wrote Maths for Mums & Dads, a book that helps parents to understand the new methods being used to teach maths. The American edition was published in 2010 entitled Old Dogs, New Math.
Rob has given hundreds of maths talks across the world to audiences of all ages, including several family lectures at the Royal Institution, and he is Director of Maths Inspiration, a programme of interactive lecture shows for teenagers, held in theatres across the UK. From 2019 to 2023 he was the puzzle adviser for New Scientist magazine.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: www.gresham.ac...
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[@davidjazay9248]

Brilliant lecture, thank you!

[@joelledurben3799]

The shape of 1 - in many modern European handwritings (as in this font), the tag is still present. I started school in French, and when I changed to English, my teacher thought my 1s were 7s!

[@elisabethcoughlin8042]

Very interesting lecture with beautiful and informative visuals. Thank you so much. It is wonderful to be able to attend a ;lecture whilst doing the washing up.

[@raymondsalzwedel]

Animations of the graphics on the slides are brilliant.

[@murderousmaths]

I wish I could catch Rob doing this talk, but this vid is the next best thing! Thanks for posting it.

[@davidwatson8118]

Brilliant presentation. I wish I had heard you back in my school days, never too late to start my education.

[@dalehalliday3578]

excellent lecture. Thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks

[@musicsubicandcebu1774]

Beyond first class.

[@inregionecaecorum]

I like the notion that Shakespeare could have been an accountant, it makes a lot of sense. His father was a businessman of sorts and later on in life Shakespeare made a few deals in Stratford, I expect financially he had his head screwed on so he may very well have kept accounts for the Globe.

[@apm77]

I really enjoyed most of this talk but the speaker seems to think it's possible to count the number of colours in a spectrum.

[@KarlKarsnark]

The Triangle appears in the textual layout of the original folio, as well.

[@SkeletalBasis]

Credit of some sort is due for managing not to mention the ubiquitous meaning of "nothing" in Shakespeare, including in the title of the play, which famously meets that of "one" in Sonnet 20: "One thing to my purpose nothing."

[@valmarsiglia]

Shakespeare's dad was a glover, not a fighter.

[@valmarsiglia]

07:34 Wait, the sum is 107, what am I missing?

[@marthabrown8534]

The top row is not included by the time you see the sums.

[@valmarsiglia]

@@marthabrown8534 Thank you for the reality check!

[@lazarbaruch]

DIdn't Hsrriot get his idea of atoms from Kepler, who conveyed to him his conjectrue about the packing of spheres (and from the shape of snowflakes)?

[@johnc2988]

Atomos is a word from the ancient greeks and means uncuttable. Anything larger than an atomos was cuttable.

[@johnleake5657]

_Sifr_ is, of course, the Arabic name of the number zero, hence cipher. On _crooked figure,_ that must be 'in the shape of a crook', mustn't it, /krukt/ in contemporary pronunciation?

[@mbsjanetelizabeth]

Shape of a crook! Brilliant idea

[@myparceltape1169]

Colour is a subjective thing. Two subjects often disagree on the same coloured item. When the colour is a light, like a part of the rainbow it is difficult to get agreement on where the colours change. It might be easier to regard colour names as arbitrary.

[@stephengent9974]

I disagree on the precision thing. We have had mess of diving distance for thousands of yeas, compasses or dividers. Water clocks? Been in existence for a long time. The planets were named after the signs of the zodiac / Roman gods.

[@bibliopolist]

I'm not sure about those "7 groats and two pence" ideas. Didn't he just tell the exact pieces he had in his purse rather than a computed sum?

[@mikesummers-smith4091]

Skilled craftsmen don't need rulers or other such newfangled unnecessary jiggamapokery. I've seen carpenters who could offer a piece of wood up to the job that needed doing, and saw it to within a millimetre or so by eye, precision turners who could estimate distances to a thou, and people who could cut s floor tile to fit around a moulding without using a template. There was more to a medieval seven-year apprenticeship than making the tea.

[@HighKingTurgon]

Shakespeare uses feminine lines a bunch, especially in his (more lyrical?) dramas of the '90s. There is no sense in not admitting orange / as an acceptable stop for a line.

[@KarlKarsnark]

"Shakespeare" (Edward de Verre) was a practicing Mason, as were most Noblemen of his day. His funerary monuments are dripping with Masonic cyphers and symbols, as well. There there is all the Latin/Hebrew gematria that he employed, as well.

[@Jeffhowardmeade]

The picky practicing masons during De Vere's lifetime stacked bricks and mortar.

[@KarlKarsnark]

"What little we know about "Shakespeare"....." Exactly ;) The lies never end with the "experts" and Stratfordians.

[@DrWrapperband]

Shake-speare was an allonym for the Earl of Oxford, who was related to Francis Bacon.