16th of October is the centre piece of Maths Week Ireland
for on the 16th October in 1843 William Rowan Hamilton, Ireland's greatest mathematician, in a flash of inspiration saw the equations of quaternions in his mind's eye and scratched them in the wall of Broome Bridge at the Royal Canal in Cabra. Now over 150 years later we have a full week throughout the Island of Ireland celebrating mathematics and its applications ....
Maths Week Ireland aims to raise awareness, appreciation and understanding of mathematics for all. Maths is needed in today's world and those people with poor proficiency in maths will be disadvantaged in life. In addition we need to encourage more young people to work harder at maths in school to progress on to areas such as maths itself, engineering, science, accountancy etc. All too common we hear people say "I can't do maths" and this leads to an idea that you have to be hardwired for maths. Of course, not everyone will become a top mathematician but everyone can do better than they do and many could learn to enjoy maths if we can break this "cycle of fear". The events of Maths Week are designed to present maths as interesting, challenging and yet rewarding - and yes, even fun!
Founded in 2006, Maths Week Ireland has been growing every year. The difficult economic times are making it more challenging to present events but starkly underline the importance of promoting maths. Because of this we are striving harder than ever to keep Maths Week growing.
Maths Week Ireland is run as a partnership between groups interested in the promotion of mathematics. Maths Week Ireland was founded and is coordinated by CALMAST at Waterford IT.
We are currently planning events for all around the Island and have begun posting them on this site under "events". However schools are the cornerstone of Maths Week as schools throughout the island run events and activities themselves. There is information in this site that will give you a flavour of what's on offer and also ideas for you can do in school. There are ideas and resources available for schools - click on the activities button at the top.
