MathsJam Gathering 2026 - Saturday Night Tables

For the Saturday evening session at MathsJam, attendees are running activities on tables in the Gathering main room. These are scheduled to run from 8-9pm, except for Family Fortunes which will be later.

A An Introduction to Pencil Puzzles (David Lyford-Tilley)

From Akari to Zebra (not to mention Sudoku), the umbrella term "pencil puzzle" covers all kinds of logic puzzles that can be solved with only a pencil and your mind. I will share a variety of puzzle types and also discuss where good puzzles can be found!

B Utter, Utter, Utter, Basic Backgammon (Colin Wright)

Backgammon is not simply a game of chance, it has strategy and tactics, and in this session we will introduce the basic rules, and then the underlying ideas of how to win.

It would be helpful if people could bring a backgammon set.

C Craft Table (Karen Hancock)

Come and craft with us. Usually fibre craft based, but all crafts welcome. Drop spindles and fibre will be available if you would like to learn to spin.

D Mathematical Zine Making (Katie Steckles)

A zine is a small, informal magazine containing a small amount of information about a topic - it can be hand-drawn, collaged, decorated or plain, and we'll provide some blank zine booklets, pens/colouring materials, stickers and decorations for you to design and make your own. We'll also put out some samples of mathematical zines other people have made for inspiration.

E Digital Embroidery (Margaret Low)

Design and code geometric patterns using a block based language (similar to Scratch), which will then stitched onto fabric by a digital embroidery machine. Explore the links between mathematics, programming and textiles.

A laptop or tablet would be useful.

F Family Fortunes (Chalkdust Team)

The Chalkdust team will be running a mathematical version of the game show Family Fortunes. Multiple teams will be able to compete in short rounds of the game, with others watching. Do you want to come along to this. Our survey says...

G Board Games (Sam Basak)

Let's play some board games. I've got easy, complicated, mathsy, wordy and weird games we can play or talk about. Bring your own favourites too, and find some new friends to play them with. We'll also be supplying some mathematical versions of existing board games, developed at previous MathsJam Gatherings.

H Making Helices with Triangles (Tandi Clausen-May)

A card net made with three or more strips of triangles can be folded into a surprising variety of shapes: a sort of long thin tube, with the ribbons twisting round the axis to form a helix made of triangles, or a 'stick' of antiprisms joined face-to-face, or a prism whose faces are composed of straight strips of triangles. Come and explore these intriguing deltahedra, and discover how they morph from one shape to the next as you move the long sides of the net up or down in relation to one another.

All materials will be provided, though you might find it useful to bring some coloured pencils or crayons or felt-tips.

I Making OEIS Sequence A400000: The city-building sequence (Peter Rowlett)

The city-building sequence: a(n) = the height h of the shortest building which can see exactly h earlier buildings. We will build terms of this sequence (buildings) from cubes and draw it on paper.

J Circus Workshop (Rob Woolley)

Have a go at some circus or juggling. Will have a range of stuff to have a go at.

K Polyhedron Workshop (Donald Bell)

A large number of magnetic triangles, squares, pentagons and hexagons will be provided ("Magformers"). You will be able to make polyhedra of many kinds - Platonic solids, Archimedean solids, Johnson solids, Deltahedra, Buckminster fullerenes, Stewart toroids, plane tilings etc. The session will be run as a "workshop". You will be given a deliberately incomplete mathematical introduction and you will be invited to look for patterns and curiosities, make conjectures and try to verify and explain them.