Ben Sparks

Mathematician, Musician, Speaker, Teacher. Freelance, AMSP, & Uni of Bath.

@Numberphile, @MathsInspiratn, @TMiPUK, and YouTube @SparksMaths

[Maths Week England @maths_week]

🚀BREAKING NEWS! 🚀- The final line up has been announced for the Maths Week England Launch event at MathsWorld, London on Saturday 15th November. An entire day of talks, stalls and mathsy activities - come and join in the fun, you won’t want to miss out.

[TMiP @TMiPUK]

We’ll have a selection of panel discussions as part of the #TMiP25 conference, including on careers in mathematics - find out how our panellists got to where they are today: through freelancing, working for organisations or starting a company. Tickets at https://t.co/Q4mq86d3N3

[Algebra Etc. @AlgebraFact]

Confusion over percentages is usually due to an ambiguous antecedent.

Asking percent OF WHAT usually clarifies the situation.

[Maths Inspiration @MathsInspiratn]

(2) A Magical Game Show with @sparksmaths in
EXETER (18th June)
https://t.co/Aq44ZrTR7y
BIRMINGHAM (10th July)
https://t.co/jgd0MA4nd8

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

Well it's a goodbye from me.
I'll be on bsky instead.

[∞ 𝕁uan ℂarlos @jcponcemath]

@SparksMaths is making very cool #fractals in @geogebra
🎥 https://t.co/bV1MJisMzQ
🎥 https://t.co/ynAi3q9Mkx
🎥 https://t.co/Ru2XXINHC2

All based on the method described in this video:
🎥https://t.co/jMCBZxDftz

If you make a fractal, share here! ∞ Fun!

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

@stockportgs @MathsInspiratn @rncmlive @shepherdpg Tagging @Ayliean and @Aoife_Hunt
Thanks for coming along!

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

IMPORTANT PLS SHARE. It's rumoured the English £9,250 tuition fee cap may be raised this pm for the 1st time in 8yrs, as University's finances are strained. As student finance misunderstandings abound, I've bashed out a few notes to help...

1. Higher tuition fees WON'T change what most pay each year. For most, they're paid for you by the student loans company and you repay afterwards only if you earn over the threshold. The amount you repay each year (9% over the threshold) solely depends on what you earn not on what you borrow.

2. Increasing tuition fees will only see those who clear the loan in full over the 40yrs pay more. That is generally mid-high to higher earning university leavers only, so the cost of increasing them will generally be born by the more affluent. Most lower and middle earning university leavers will simply pay 9% extra tax above the threshold for 40yrs (and higher tuition fees won't change that)

3. The rise is tuition fees is likely to be trivial compared to the changes the last govt made for 2023 starters. 2023 starters had their repayment thresholds dropped to £25,000 (from £27,295/yr) and had the time they had to keep repaying for (unless cleared) extended to 40years from 30years.

So these higher annual repayments for longer, increased by over 50% the amount many graduates will eventually have to pay back for going to university. Yet they were almost stealth changes because people can't intuitively feel the seismic impact.

Changing tuition fees is a more obvious rise, but in reality has far less of an impact on the amount most will repay (though combined with the 2023 changes it does certainly up the cost).

4. The biggest practical problem for students isnt tution fees (even if raised) its the fact maintenace loans aren't big enough. English maintenance loans have not kept pace with inflation. I'd urge the govt to couple the tuition fee loans with bigger living loans - if not it is a real risk to social mobility, with those from the poorest backgrounds likely to be worse affected.

I could write more, but will stop here, hopefully this gives an idea the issues are less straightforward than many feel.

[∞ 𝕁uan ℂarlos @jcponcemath]

Sierpinski Carpet - @geogebra Build
https://t.co/tgFLtAhizl by @SparksMaths

[∞ 𝕁uan ℂarlos @jcponcemath]

Iteration and IterationList Commands - Sierpinski Triangles 3 Ways in Ge... https://t.co/9KcZZstfV0 via @SparksMaths @geogebra

[∞ 𝕁uan ℂarlos @jcponcemath]

Lorenz Attractor Geogebra Build - companion vid to 3Blue1Brown https://t.co/B1QiEygupX via @SparksMaths

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

@richer_emma @LondMathSoc Drop me a line from the contact form at https://t.co/5YjzK96ZcK?

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

Would you like me to run a maths workshop or talk at your school in 2025? The @LondMathSoc has grants available to help fund mathematical enrichment and communication. Get in touch if you'd like to discuss options!
https://t.co/uS3iCPF3PH

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

@Statsyman @LondMathSoc Probably from an LMS grant point of view...

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

@RaAdamson @garstangrover @LondMathSoc Send me an email and I'll try to coordinate! Contact form at https://t.co/5YjzK96ZcK

[London Mathematical Society @LondMathSoc]

Applications for the next round of LMS Education Grants are open!

Two grant schemes are available - one to help fund maths activities for from KS1 up to undergrad, and one for organisers of regular mathematical conferences.

Deadline: 30 Nov

➡️ https://t.co/sCR7p25bI1

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

@robeastaway @SparxMaths Indeed. As a unfortunate namesake I get to hear quite a lot of feedback. Let me know if you want to hear it!

[Rob Eastaway @robeastaway]

@sparxmaths I should have tagged you in on this tweet. There are a lot of concerns.

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

@AndyPMaths @DrFrostMaths @DrFrostResource Also judicious use of transparent colour (even from within Powerpoint itself) can make the graph animation building easier.

[Ben Sparks @SparksMaths]

@DrFrostMaths @DrFrostResource Agreed, on resolution and size etc. Easiest way would be to export an image of a sine wave from a graph plotter though and overlay/underlay it on your axes. Can then use powerpoint animations to reveal parts at a time as needed.