The sixteenth group of essays from the 2023 Teddy Rocks Maths Competition. The showcase will take place throughout June and July with the winners being announced at the end.

The competition is organised with St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford and offers a cash prize plus publication on the university website for the winners. It will be running again in early 2024 so be sure to follow Tom (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to make sure you don’t miss the announcement!

Oscar dives into the realm of chaos theory, from double pendulums to weather forecasts.

Gina uses the pigeonhole principle to solve an interesting problem with friends.

This essay investigates the myth of Dido and the problem of maximising area for a fixed perimeter.

Krish shows how simple counting can be used as a powerful method of mathematical proof.

Jack explores whether maths was discovered or invented.

Ege explains how neural networks allow computers to learn.

This essay pens an ode to mathematics: the Queen of the Sciences.

This essay presents some of the fundamental properties of fractals.

This essay uncovers the history of the number line and its gradual evolution into a plane.

Edward looks into Cantor’s famous diagonalisation argument.

Mia provides a brief overview of some of the most intriguing shapes in topology.

Phoebe introduces Decision Field Theory as an extension to Game theory that better captures human behaviour.