Maths and stats in the inbox

This week’s Maths and Stats by Email from the CSIRO tackles the extremely pertinent question: What’s the deal with 29 February? I will not steal their thunder by paraphrasing the article’s answer, the purpose of this article is to point out what a great and interesting resource the maths email is.

Once a week the newsletter pops into my mailbox with an interesting article, an appropriate activity (this week it’s how to create your own perpetual calendar), a brainteaser and a few other titbits. I make no claims to being a mathematician or statistician but I find this short weekly dose is a great way to thinks about issues in those areas.

I love the fact that an organisation like the CSIRO is making the effort to produce a cool newsletter like this. I’m interested in how successful this venture has been for them, but so far I haven’t had a response to my questions. We’ll see.

It’s also a good way to impress the kids over the dinner-table!