Oxbridge 2020 (thread number 9)

[DadDadDad]

What a year! Just as we've all become experts (at least in our own minds ) about how to write Personal Statements, Oxford admission tests and Cambridge STEP, the complicated dance of the interview process, and how to simultaneously boost our DSs' and DDs' confidence while preparing them for the possibility of disappointment, we have a new topic to learn: statistical modelling of expected grades.

Of course, like all those previous topics, we're not in control of teacher projection and OfQual rejection, but we have this thread to support each other through the coming months.

All welcome. For the record, I have a DS with an Oxford offer for a humanities subject.

Angsty, flipping auto-correct!

I like your son's style, @GinWorksForMe - are we talking concentric circles or is it a spiral? The other game I've enjoyed playing this morning which is great for introverted mathematicians is following the arrows in the supermarket while keeping 2 metres from the seven other people wandering around.

Attached one of my favourite circle problems. Calculate the shaded area. The line is 10cm long, tangent to the smaller circle, and the circles are concentric. Yes, that is enough information to do it.

He says it's 100 pi

Which means nothing to me.

@DadDadDad sorry forgot to tag you

He's also just confessed that one of the angsty rock songs is about the inescapability of the circle of life. And that another is about a circle of love and hate??! Circles are clearly the theme of the week.

@GinWorksForMe - well if he add cm^2 to his answer, then I will accept it.

Has he tried Euclidea? This sort of classical geometry never really featured in my mathematical education, so I'm finding it quite challenging.

@Coleoptera - I can't answer your question in detail, but DS registered and applied for his student finance yesterday, so we simply completed it on the assumption that he will be starting in the Autumn. I think it makes sense to get the application going through the system.

Actually, I'm not sure there is a deadline as for example I thought you could literally apply for the finance even when the academic year has started. It may be that May is just the date for being confident that you'll get the money before the term begins.

Me! Me! Me!
I get 100pi cm2
What an awesome thread this is. Wish I'd found it earlier!
I 'rediscovered' maths a couple of years ago when DS was revising for GCSE and I had the bright idea to incentivise him if he to beat me in past papers. Cue frantic revision from me, which then turned into an obsession leading on to past papers in maths, further maths and even step (although I can't get more than a couple of full answers even on step 1, the shame).
I thought I was the only one but maybe not. Yay!
By the way DS got fed up with me knowing all the answers so asked DH to join in. That led to some tensions in our house, I can tell you..

@SnapSnapDragon @DadDadDad I think DS would love you as parents!! I couldn't do the Year 6 maths, let alone the stuff he's on to now.

D sent her student loans application off when the college sent her the financial declaration to fill in. We had to fill our bits in and send them off, and she got the confirmation letter through within a few days. Surprisingly straightforward!

@GinWorksForMe - yes, sadly, DS wants to geek out on very different subjects (some of which I can provide some limited response to). I don't think any of my DCs are ever going to want to do maths problems with me. My main outlet is answering the occasional question on math.stackexchange.com/

I've got a challenging volume question that involves some juicy triple integration, if anyone's interested...

@DadDadDad send all maths problems here - anything that keeps DS busy is welcome!!

Anyone not interested in maths, please route around this post

OK - so you have wooden cube of side 6cm. You drill a cylindrical hole of diameter 2cm through the centre of one face all the way out to the centre of the opposite face. You then drill in a similar fashion through another pair of opposite faces, and again through the remaining pair of opposite faces. So you've created three tubes that intersect at the centre of the cube. What is the total volume of wood which has been removed?

A few points:

1. There might be an intuitive geometric way of doing this, but I know I did it by grinding out equations of curves and integrating.

1. The techniques required might stretch a bit beyond A level (I'm a bit out of touch with syllabuses these days). Or maybe they're a (daily government-mandated) stroll in the park to today's Further Mathematicians.

1. It's a long time since I tackled this so it might take me a while to remember the solution (like any honourable mathmo, I'll resist the urge to google it straightaway).

@DadDadDad
DS says the answer is (14xPi)cm^3
(I think he could've simplified that to 44cm^3) Is he right?

I'm pretty sure that pi features in the answer but there's also a part that's not a multiple of pi. Hopefully, I'll find time today to find the solution.

@Coleoptera, I think that was me ref deadline to apply to student finance to guarantee payments by the autumn. My DSes have applied 4 times previously and it was usually quoted as a date in May for new students/freshers and later for returning students. This year I can’t find anything on the official websites. A few student websites are saying 15th May but they aren’t official websites. It used to be more clearly signposted on the dot gov, UCAS and the Student Finance England websites so I’m guessing they may be being a bit more flexible due to CV? I’d still aim to get their applications in by mid May.

www.gov.uk/government/news/students-can-apply-now-for-2021-student-finance

This press release from February does state a date, 22nd May for new students. Sorry, don’t know why it didn’t come up in my searches previously.

This year the application for a new students together with all supporting evidence has to be received by SFE by 22nd May 2020.

The date is on the form.

Cross post while I nipped off to look at my paper copy of the form :)

Thanks @goodbyestranger, we applied online.

...and back to maths

@DadDadDad, I got 12pi which is the easy part and then did a very crude approximation to get pi cubed / 8 which I'm almost certain is wrong. @TerfTerfTerf, tell your DS that I don't think the middle cube is 2pi because it is cut in three different directions. He'll understand.
Anyway, I may try again later!

Meanwhile, @GinWorksForMe, I'll take your DS if he's going spare. You had me at mowing circles in the lawn. My DS is a straightforward, sporty sort of chap who always has his eye on the prize. This has its advantages, of course, but I would welcome a bit more quirkiness.

and now back to student finances...

@DadDadDad
DS has revised his answer to
46/3 x Pi

DS has been with us all day, we get very few days off together and we have had a long walk, a huge very late Easter lunch and an afternoon of meditation/reflection. We have now opened a bottle of wine for the grown ups and the teens are playing PS4/on Houseparty/watching re-runs of sitcoms. I'm in heaven! Anyway, I told him I had a new maths problem for him and he's going to look at it tomorrow when we are all back at work. Thanks @DadDadDad, keep 'em coming!