Oxford Online Maths Club
Welcome to the club!
The Oxford Online Maths Club is a weekly livestream from the University of Oxford. It’s free, interactive, casual, and relaxed, and the livestreams are recorded so that you can watch back afterwards if you can't make it to the live broadcast on Thursday afternoons. Our regular host is Dr James Munro, and we often have current Oxford students answering questions in chat and appearing on the livestream to talk about maths.
The club is mostly aimed at people about to apply to university or about to start a Maths course, but everyone's welcome and there's no registration needed. Whether you’re the only person you know who’s interested in mathematics, or if you’re an entire sixth-form maths club looking for more maths content, we’re here for you.
Next Livestream
The Oxford Online Maths Club will return on Thursday 9 January 2025 17:00-18:00.
Contact us
If you’d like to ask us anything about anything we've covered on OOMC, send an email to oomc [at] maths.ox.ac.uk.
We'd love your suggestions for Maths topics, or feedback or comments on the livestream, which you can also send to the email address above.
Previous Episodes
You can watch previous episodes and access all the further reading with the links below. There's no need to watch the episodes "in order"; choose one with a title that sounds interesting to you!
Season 8 (2024)
Summer Puzzles
It's the last episode of season 8, and we've got some puzzles for you to think about over the summer.
CompSci Takeover 2!
Alice is back to show us how topology can be applied to problems in Computer Science.
CompSci Takeover!
In our first Computer Science takeover episode, Alice is on the livestream to show us a problem from topology with relevance to data science.
Solid Gold
Divide and Conquer
On this episode, we take a look at an algorithm for the highest common factor, and find out what else we can conquer with it.
Is this your card?
In this episode, we've got a card trick and a mathematical proof that it works, with a connection to graph theory and to matchmaking!
Factorisation
At the start of the previous season, we talked about how 91 is not a prime number. But how can you tell? In this episode, we'll factorise some numbers!
Season 7 (2024)
Two Routes to Hyperbolic Space
In this episode, the last before we take a short break for Easter, James presents two views of hyperbolic space, with an applied maths traffic puzzle and a pure maths heptagon problem.
Predator vs Prey
How can maths help us understand population dynamics? On this episode, we'll find out!
Proof by Story
Once upon a time, there was an episode of the Oxford Online Maths Club where all the proofs took the form of stories. Eve is on the livestream to share some of those stories...
Sounds Like Maths
Music and Maths go together really well; in this episode we're exploring intervals, tuning, and Fourier transforms, with special guest Maria.
Leap Years ft. Matt Parker
For this 29 February episode of the Oxford Online Maths Club, Matt Parker is on the show to talk about the maths of Leap Years!
Colour by Numbers
Sophie is on the livestream in this episode to demonstrate some problems that can be solved by adding a splash of colour!
Six Degrees of Maths Club
Tarek is on the Oxford Online Maths Club in this episode to help us understand how it can be the case that your friends almost always have more friends that you!
Projective Geometry
Do two lines always meet at a point? What would a really big parabola look like? In this episode, Miles shows us what projective geometry is all about.
Maths and the Law
Lawyers have, on occasion, tried to use somewhat dubious mathematical arguments in a court of law. In this episode, author and mathematician Coralie Colmez is on the show to discuss this with us!
Hydra!
It's time to face the hydra; a mythical creature that regrows heads whenever you cut one off. In this episode, we're looking at some variant hydras and some associated number systems.
Waves
Part of the power of mathematics is that one equation can turn up in many different places. In this episode; the wave equation.
Continue this sequence
Take a large power of two and calculate two to the power of that. Is the answer one less than a prime? In this episode; probably not!
Fake primes!
Some numbers aren't prime but feel almost prime. In this episode, we find a way to make that feeling more precise!
More Episodes
We've been running Oxford Online Maths Club since 2021. For recordings of all the livestreams from previous years, click or tap the link to the right.
More links
The STEP support programme is a great set of maths resources, even if you're not going to take the STEP exams. Start here and then work through these; if they're too easy for you, then try these or eventually these. Dr Stephen Siklos's book Advanced Problems in Mathematics: Preparing for University is great, and free.
NRICH has lots of maths problems, investigations, games, and activities.
The Maths department at Oxford has written practice problems and material to help with bridging the gap, which some colleges send out to students to look at over the summer before starting the Oxford maths degree. The Bridging the Gap material has been expanded into the book "Towards Higher Mathematics: A Companion" by Dr Richard Earl.
The maths departmental prospectus has more information about the Oxford maths and joint honours degrees.
Full details of the courses currently offered as part of the Maths degree are available here. Please note that the courses offered may change year-on-year, and course details may change. Links to courses in specific years of the Maths degree;
Note that the courses are sorted by term (Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity are Oxford's names for the three terms).
University College at Oxford has compiled a list of other resources, Staircase 12.
Jane Street
The Oxford Online Maths Club is supported by Jane Street.
Jane Street is a research-driven trading firm with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Amsterdam. They combine techniques from machine learning, distributed systems, programmable hardware, and statistics to trade on markets around the world.
They're always looking to add smart, curious people to their team. If you're inquisitive, collaborative, and enjoy solving interesting problems, explore Jane Street's open roles and upcoming educational programs.