Aspiration Fridays: Maths in Natural Disasters

30th January 2019

Aspiration Fridays is a series of fortnightly talks to inspire our students.  Speakers have been invited to come to our school during Friday lunchtimes to speak about a range of different topics to engage as many students as possible, from space travel, to fossils, to Impressionist art.  Last week, we heard about maths in natural disasters.

On Friday 25th of January, we had someone come in to talk about the maths of avalanches. He told us about how when energy moves through snow, the snow moves, therefore creating an avalanche. He works on part of the equation, which - when solved - will mean people will be able to predict avalanches, therefore avoiding catastrophe.  However, the equation is very hard to solve. This is where his work comes in. His job is to use computers to solve the equation for him. At the end, we asked questions like 'What are your regrets?' He answered, 'I sometimes wish I had stayed in engineering, because it helps people, but hopefully this work will help people lots'.  

By William (7B)

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