The seventh group of essays from the 2022 Teddy Rocks Maths Competition come from entrants with surnames beginning with the letters P-R. The showcase will take place throughout May and June with the winners being announced at the end.

The competition was organised with St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford and offers a cash prize plus publication on the university website. It will be running again in early 2023 so be sure to follow Tom (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to make sure you don’t miss the announcement!

Anoush knits together a range of geometrical topics through crocheting, including a brilliant visualisation of Euclid’s parallel postulate on the hyperbolic plane.

James showcases the sine function like never before – from 80’s pop music to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.

Rohan explores the possibility of a mathematical equation that can be used to model the force of attraction between two human beings.

Davide takes a poignant look at the pursuit of mathematical happiness.

Rhea tries to understand social interactions through the lens of Ramsey Theory (featuring some incredibly beautiful graphs!).

Aayaan twists and turns through group theory, showing us how the Rubik’s Cube can be understood using abstract algebra.

Lorenz investigates the seemingly paradoxical Gabriel’s Horn – a shape with a finite volume, but infinite surface area.

Anointing provides an algebraic and geometric proof of Cramer’s Rule – a technique often used to calculate the inverse of a square matrix.