{"id":24761,"date":"2026-10-09T10:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mathsweek.ie\/2026\/?page_id=24761"},"modified":"2026-10-16T00:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T23:18:18","slug":"irish-times-poster-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mathsweek.ie\/2026\/irish-times-poster-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish Times Maths Week Poster 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year’s Irish Times Poster celebrates Broomsday and our rich mathematical heritage<\/span><\/p>\n

You can see answers to the puzzles below.<\/p><\/h2><\/span>

<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Irish<\/a><\/span><\/div>

Click the image for a hi-resolution pdf.<\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/span>

See Solutions to the puzzles below<\/h1><\/span>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/span>

Broomsday: Celebrating our rich mathematical heritage<\/h2><\/span>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Mathematics has an astonishing ability to describe the hidden patterns and rules of the universe. This poster celebrates this story and highlights some important Irish contributions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 16 October 1843, William Rowan Hamilton <\/strong>had a mathematical epiphany at Broombridge in Dublin. Hamilton Day has long been celebrated by the Royal Irish Academy\u2019s Hamilton Lecture, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and Maynooth University\u2019s Hamilton Walk and the annual Maths Week Ireland. Christened by some wag as Broomsday, it is a mathematical equivalent to the great literary celebration that differs by just one letter and 4 months. Hamilton\u2019s story is one part of the great human quest to find patterns in nature. A story that stretches back at least 5,000 years in Ireland. <\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. LOOK UP: The story begins with patterns<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    5,000 years ago, people in Ireland were already watching for patterns in the sky.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    At Newgrange, the passage and chamber were constructed so that the light of the rising Sun penetrates the monument around the winter solstice. Its alignment demonstrates extraordinarily careful observation of the Sun’s annual movement. To humans in many civilisations it was important to be able to mark the passage of time and seasons for ceremonial, religious and agricultural purposes.<\/p>\n

    Across the world, people measured the heavens.<\/strong>
    \nBabylonian astronomers recorded planetary movements. Chinese astronomers kept long records of celestial events. Indian mathematicians developed sophisticated methods of calculation and astronomy. Mayan scholars constructed intricate calendars. Islamic mathematicians and astronomers developed and preserved powerful mathematical techniques.<\/p>\n

    Mathematics begins by noticing a pattern. To understand the pattern, you have to measure it. When you understand it, you can predict. <\/strong><\/p>\n

    The extraordinary idea: Earth and the heavens obey the same rules.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The observation of heavenly bodies was an important part of the emergence of science.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In 1543, On the Heavenly Bodies was published in which Copernicus argued that the Sun was the centre of the solar system, rather than the Earth as was held for 1,400 years. In the 1600\u2019s there was a remarkable progress in our understanding of the world.<\/p>\n

    Kepler <\/strong>(1571-1630) determined that the orbits of planets follow mathematical rules.<\/p>\n

    Galileo<\/strong> (1564-1642) discovered that falling and moving objects can be measured and described mathematically.<\/p>\n

    Boyle<\/strong> (1627-1691) showed that a precise mathematical relationship can be observed between the pressure and volume of a gas. This was further evidence that the natural world on the earth as well as in the heavens was governed by mathematical relationships.<\/p>\n

    Newton <\/strong>(1642-1727) realised that same force that causes an apple to fall also caused the motion of the Moon. He developed a mathematical law that described bodies moving in space and also bodies falling on earth.<\/p>\n

    2. Robert Boyle was born in Lismore Castle Co Waterford in 1627. <\/strong>Among his many contributions to science, he is best known for Boyle\u2019s Law which states that the volume and pressure of an enclosed gas have an inverse relationship. If the pressure is doubled, the volume is halved. Likewise, if the pressure is halved the volume doubles. It was considered remarkable that there should be so precise a relationship. In the succeeding centuries other relationships for gases were added to Boyle\u2019s Law to give a complete mathematical model of the behaviour of \u201cideal\u201d gases. Boyle made fundamental discoveries in chemistry, physics and biology and was one of the most influential scientists in history. In 2027 his 400th<\/sup> birthday will be celebrated as Boyle400 around the world. See RobertBoyle.ie for more details.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. DO THE MATHS: Numbers can reveal what our eyes cannot<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Mathematics was not content to just account for observation. The real power of mathematics in science is to predict.<\/p>\n

      A heart, some arithmetic and a revolutionary idea<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The old model held that blood was continuously produced and consumed by the body. William Harvey proposed the circulation of the blood, not from observation, but from mathematics. He estimated how much blood the heart expelled on each beat and multiplied it by the number of beats. The result was far more blood than food could possibly continually replace. His conclusion: the blood must be circulating. Over 30 years would pass before capillaries were observed.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. PREDICT THE INVISIBLE: Hamilton’s astonishing discovery<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        In 1832: Hamilton predicts something nobody has ever seen<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Hamilton was studying the mathematics of light travelling through crystals. His equations produced an extraordinary result: in particular crystals, a single ray of light should spread into a hollow cone. Nobody had observed such a thing. Within a couple of months, Hamilton\u2019s colleague at Trinity College Humphrey Lloyd<\/strong> tested the prediction and confirmed it.<\/p>\n

        This was huge news in the scientific community, not because conic refraction is particularly interesting, but that mathematics had predicted a phenomenon before the experiment revealed it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        William Rowan Hamilton <\/strong><\/p>\n

        William Rowan Hamilton was born in Dublin in 1805 and died in Dublin in 1865. Hamilton was a child prodigy, reportedly speaking a dozen languages as a child. He was appointed Andrews Professor of Astronomy shortly before he graduated from Trinity College Dublin. This also made him the Royal Astronomer for Ireland, and he lived and worked at Dunsink Observatory, near Finglas to the west of Dublin. Among Hamilton\u2019s many great achievements he was most proud of quaternions. These are sets of four numbers that can be used to describe the position and orientation of bodies in space. He was walking along the Royal Canal and while approaching Broombridge near Cabra, he had a flash of inspiration and saw a solution of a problem he had been working on for years. He carved the equations of quaternions on Broombridge on October 16th 1843.<\/p>\n

        The unreasonable usefulness of mathematics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Many mathematicians pursue mathematics for its own worth and beauty unconcerned with practical applications. But, even the most abstract and esoteric maths may find unexpected uses in succeeding generations. Quaternions had little or no practical use at the time, but it was a daring move in mathematics as he had created a new algebra with its own rules. While quaternions only had a brief vogue, Hamilton\u2019s originality and daring inspired other mathematicians to create fruitful new mathematical worlds. Quaternions found real life applications over a century later. They are useful for moving objects in computer animation and for manoeuvring spacecraft.<\/p>\n

        Another good example is the work of George Boole, first professor of mathematics at UCC. He created Boolean Algebra in an attempt to create a mathematical representation of logic. In the 20th<\/sup> Century Boole\u2019s algebra became the basis for all digital electronics, telecommunications and internet. Our modern world would not be possible without it.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. BUILD A MODEL: A universe you can experiment with<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          What if you could experiment on the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Some things are too big or costly to experiment on. But we can build a mathematical model: a simplified mathematical description of something in the real world.<\/strong><\/p>\n