With well over 600 submissions from Barra to Dumfries, a competition open to school-aged children and young people living in Scotland, both individually and in groups, was run to give a space to identify and reflect on the Maths surrounding us daily: the maths inside. Using the above quote by Ian Stewart as inspiration, the maths inside photo competition was devised to celebrate the Scottish Government initiative ‘Maths Week Scotland’, which took place between 10th and 16th September this year.

The purpose of this competition was to raise awareness and celebrate the often unseen mathematics all around us. Photographic submissions of everyday objects in the wild, in the city or through change with the maths inside sticker on them were invited.

The response was enormous, with pupils, parents and teachers all getting involved in this interdisciplinary competition, which matched mathematical insights with an artistic eye. To see the winners visit the competition website mathsinside.com.

On the penultimate day in Maths Week Scotland, a prize ceremony filled the ground floor of the Mathematics & Statistics Building with around 100 in attendance of all ages. Visitors were welcomed by our Head of School, Prof. Ian Strachan and prizes were awarded by Katie Oldfield of Maths Week Scotland and Laura Ross from the Scottish Government.


First published: 5 October 2018