The nineteenth (and final!) 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!

Riana explores the past, present and future of imaginary numbers.

This essay explores the best way to solve a maze.

Kate investigates how it can be possible for 3 irrational numbers to combine to give an integer (almost).

Brianne delves into the rabbit hole of origami and its applications in the real world.

Samuel provides a detailed overview of the topic of formal logic.

Jay investigates the maths that underpins our understanding of sound waves.

Andrea solves a riddle from Moriarty using Fibonacci P-code.

Benjamin takes a closer look at fractals and the concept of fractional dimension.

This essay looks at how complex numbers are used to solve real world problems.

This essay identifies the links between graph theory, DNA and criminal networks.

This essay explores how knot theory can be used to help us to understand DNA.

This essay introduces Russell’s Paradox and the Monty Hall problem.

This essay applies the tools of graph theory to solve problems in networks and colouring.

This essay discusses whether formal logic could be used to help resolve political disagreements.

Arjun presents some interesting problems involving prime numbers.

Ashley uses a distance-time graph to introduce the concept of a derivative.