Every year, thousands of students around the world encounter Ferrers graphs. Most of these students probably assume that Ferrers was a mathematician and that his name is among the hundreds at a well-known website specialising in mathematical biography. The first assumption is correct.

Norman Macleod Ferrers was born 11 August 1829 in Gloucester. In 1851, he received a BA degree from Cambridge University, with honours. He was Senior Wrangler and winner of first prize in the Smith mathematics competition. He studied law and was called to the bar in 1855, but returned to Caius College in 1856 as a mathematical lecturer, and was ordained apriest in 1861.

The Independent [1], prior to the 1996 Wimbledon tournament, carried a story to the effect that Tennis had a problem. Rackets were getting longer and, so the International Tennis Federation (ITF) claimed, rallies were getting shorter as the serve dominated. The story provided some surprising figures. The current limit to the length of a racket is 32 inches, but the longer rackets which are the cause of the problem are 29 inches, 2 inches longer than the standard racket. The article claimed that such rackets 'give players up to 14 per cent more power than standard models'. The article went further,

My interest in this fascinating area of mathematics was aroused by a recent article [1] in which it was shown that

has an infinity of non-trivial solutions (i.e. u ≠ v) in positive integers, rationals and algebraic irrationals. Replacing u and v by their reciprocals, x and y, permits the equation to be written as

Arithmetical properties of numbers have been a source of fascination for mathematics students and professionals throughout the ages. In this paper we consider a puzzle of sorts in which we move the first digit of a positive integer A to the last position and establish conditions under which A will be equal to a multiple of the new integer. For instance, if A equals 820512 then A = 4A’where A’ = 205128.

This article shows a link between Pell’s equation and the right-angled triangles for 60° and 45° via the trigonometric ratios for 15° and the extraction of square roots.

It is well known that the trigonometric ratios of 60°, 30° and 45° are easily obtained from the triangles ABC and RST which are shown in Figure 1.

A driving hazard problem was proposed by Baylis [1] and revised by Bender [2]. The problem can be described as follows: when making a right turn on British roadways, one moves to the right as far as possible on one's own side of the roadway and then turns. Unfortunately, the rear of the vehicle swings leftward as the right turn is begun - toward the unsuspecting driver passing on the left (Figure 1). This can be quite noticeable if the turning vehicle is a long bus. Hence the driving hazard problem - just how far will the back corner of the bus (P in Figure 1) swing toward the left as the bus driver negotiates the right turn - was proposed.