School of Hard Sums - review

Despite reminding people about this show, I missed it & failed to record it. I couldn't find a catchup service for Dave - however, I lucked out on Sunday as it is repeated in the evening on Dave (& Dave+1).
The Maths department experts were somewhat reminiscent of the panel in Countdown without the adjudication role (which was Marcus du Sautoys role along with problem-setting).

Transparent 'whiteboards' were very much in evidence (Felt quite Numb3rs-like) for use by Dara & Marcus.

Dara's guest was the comedian David O’Doherty and the three tasks tackled were all positional (geometrical) in nature:
 1) Bridging two rivers between Romeo & Juliet (Bridges are at 90 degrees to rivers) with minimum distance.
Dara's (correct) solution owed a lot to origami as he 'folded out' the rivers

2) Placing 4 stars so that they were equidistant was hard on David as he failed to think in 3 dimensions at the start and Dara got there first to the solution of a regular tetrahedron.
3) Arranging dancers at a dance to get the maximum number of kisses provided that the kissee is closest to the kisser. David actually went to a dance hall with a tape measure whilst Dara & the Maths department stayed in the studio with paper and pencil. They got the exact correct answer but David got more kisses(!).
Whilst crediting Dara with the correct solution, M du S showed a simpler way of reaching the same answer.

It was linked to real-world architectural problems like the glass in the Onion building in London where irregular "off-equilateral" triangles are used to give the curved shape.

Overall, I liked the programme. I know some people have quite vocally expressed a dislike for it. However, a way of conveying to the wider public how maths can be used in the real world for things that are relevant to them - I think that it succeeds.

Tonight's show has Alex Horne as the guest comedian.








The answer to previous posted puzzler about 9 coins (one is fake & heavier). Weigh 6 coins with 3 in each pan. If they are equal the fake is in the other three otherwise it is in the three on the heavy side. Then use your scond weighing with one coin in each pan and the fake is either in the heavier pan or is the unweighed coin of the three if the pans balance.