Much Ado About Numbers

Published 6 June 2024

On Tuesday 21 May, selected Maths students went to Kennet School to hear Rob Eastaway talk about his new book, ‘Much Ado About Numbers’. They told us how they got on…

“We found this a fascinating and entertaining talk, and who would’ve known that seven is such a magical number?! We saw so many connections between Shakespeare, Maths and so many other various subjects. Shakespeare helped contribute loads of new words to the dictionary, introducing ‘orange’ (referring to the colour), ‘apostrophe’ and ‘road’! 

We saw how difficult it was to add roman numerals together, and we now feel so grateful for our modern day number system. Previously, we didn’t see any connections between Shakespeare, Newton and Galileo – but now their coexistence feels so… right! Coming out of the talk, we now feel educated in many ways numbers, literature, music and everything in between!”

Amy Oliver, Luca Forrester, Hector Marshall, Casper Nolan & Sophie Lystor