Maths for Kids / Maths is Not Boring: The Kids Maths Podcast

Episode

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  What is the Collatz conjecture? 10.10.2026 9mnt

  Have you ever heard of a math puzzle that acts like a wild weather storm? In 1937, a mathematician named Lothar Collatz invented a simple number machine with just two rules: if a number is even, cut it in half. If it is odd, multiply it by three and add one! Sounds easy, right? But what happens next is pure magic! Instead of acting normally, the numbers bounce wildly up and down like hailstones caught in a massive storm cloud! Some climb up into the thousands, while others drop low, but event...
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  What is Zeno's paradox? 09.10.2026 12mnt

  Have you ever tried to walk across a room, but realized you have to go halfway first? And then half of that remaining distance? And half of that? Welcome to one of the most mind-bending puzzles in history! Over 2,500 years ago, an ancient Greek thinker named Zeno of Elea came up with a massive brain-teaser called Zeno's paradox. He imagined a race between the world's fastest hero, Achilles, and a slow, creeping tortoise. Because Achilles is so fast, he gives the tortoise a big head start. But...
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  What was the first times table? 08.10.2026 11mnt

  Have you ever wondered who invented times tables? Or why three times four is exactly the same as four times three? It's time to discover the quiet magic of multiplication! Imagine lining up your favorite wrapped sweets on a table in three rows of four. Now, walk around to the side of the table. Suddenly, it looks like four rows of three, but you haven't moved a single sweet! Mathematicians call this amazing swapping trick "commutativity," and it perfectly hides in plain sight in chocolate bar...
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  Platonic Solids for Kids: Why There Are Only Five Perfect Dice 07.10.2026 9mnt

  The story of the Platonic solids for kids: the five perfect shapes studied by Theaetetus and Plato in ancient Athens, and how Euclid proved around 300 BCE there can never be a sixth. • What makes a solid perfect: the same faces and the same corners • Why only five shapes work, worked out with triangles, squares and pentagons at a corner • Why each one makes a fair die, and where they turn up in salt crystals and viruses • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on...
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  Averages for Kids: Why No One Is Average in Every Way 06.10.2026 10mnt

  The story of averages for kids: how around 1950 Gilbert Daniels measured 4,063 United States Air Force pilots and found that not one was average in every way. • Why cockpits built for the average pilot fitted nobody • What an average tells you about a crowd, and what it cannot tell you • How the answer was seats and pedals that adjust, like the seats in a car • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to he...
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  Binary for Kids: How Computers Count With Only 1s and 0s 05.10.2026 11mnt

  The story of binary for kids: how Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz wrote out a way of counting with only 0 and 1 in 1679, long before computers. • How to count one, two, three and four in binary • How Leibniz published his work in Paris in 1703 • Why switches that are only off or on made binary perfect for computers • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear the story of a new great idea in maths every day.
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  Triangles for Kids: Why the Strongest Shape Has Three Sides 04.10.2026 11mnt

  The story of triangles for kids: why a triangle will not squash flat when a square does, and how Gustave Eiffel built his tower in Paris from triangles in 1889. • What engineers mean by rigidity • How more than 18,000 iron pieces in the Eiffel Tower are laced into triangles • Where triangles hold things firm, from bicycle frames to bridges • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear the story of a ne...
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  Googol for Kids: What a Googol Is and Who Named It 03.10.2026 13mnt

  The story of the googol for kids: how nine-year-old Milton Sirotta named the number one followed by a hundred zeros for his uncle, mathematician Edward Kasner, around 1920. • Why a googol is bigger than the number of atoms in the known universe • The even bigger googolplex that Milton dreamed up • How the word spread and gave a famous search engine its name • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear...
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  Fractions for Kids: How the Ancient Egyptians Shared Bread 02.10.2026 13mnt

  The story of fractions for kids: how the Egyptian scribe Ahmes wrote down problems about sharing loaves of bread fairly about 3,500 years ago, in the scroll now called the Rhind papyrus. • How the Egyptians built fractions from pieces with a one on top • Why two thirds got a special sign of its own • Where the Rhind papyrus is kept today • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear the story of a new ...
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  Tessellation for Kids: How Tiles Cover a Floor With No Gaps 01.10.2026 12mnt

  The story of tessellation for kids: shapes that cover a floor with no gaps, and how David Smith from Bridlington in Yorkshire found a tile in 2022 whose pattern never repeats. • Why squares, triangles and hexagons make repeating patterns • How Roger Penrose found a never-repeating pattern with two shapes in 1974 • How David Smith's 13-sided hat was proved by a team of four in 2023 • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Fol...
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  The Equals Sign for Kids: Who Invented It and What It Means 30.09.2026 9mnt

  The story of the equals sign for kids: how Welsh doctor Robert Recorde drew two parallel lines in his 1557 book The Whetstone of Witte. • Why Recorde chose two lines of the same length • How his book was the first in English to use plus and minus signs too • Why equals means both sides balance, not the answer comes next • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear the story of a new great idea in math...
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  The Law of Large Numbers for Kids: Why Coin Tosses Even Out 29.09.2026 11mnt

  The story of the law of large numbers for kids: how John Kerrich tossed a coin 10,000 times during the Second World War, and how Jacob Bernoulli explained the result in a book published in 1713. • Why Kerrich's 5,067 heads is so close to half • Why a coin has no memory, and the next toss can still be anything • How the same idea lets a survey of many people tell us about a whole crowd • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify....
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  Negative Numbers for Kids: How Numbers Go Below Zero 28.09.2026 9mnt

  The story of negative numbers for kids: numbers below zero, from Chinese counting rods about 2,000 years ago to Brahmagupta's rules in India in 628 CE. • How Chinese mathematicians used red and black rods in The Nine Chapters • Why many European mathematicians refused them, and one called them absurd in 1544 • Where negative numbers live today, from thermometers to lift buttons • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow...
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  Fractals for Kids: Why the Coastline of Britain Never Ends 27.09.2026 9mnt

  The story of fractals for kids: why the coast of Britain gets longer the shorter your ruler, and how Benoit Mandelbrot asked the coastline question in 1967. • How Lewis Fry Richardson found two different lengths for the Spain and Portugal border • Helge von Koch's 1904 snowflake, with an endless edge inside a circle • Where fractals hide in ferns, broccoli, rivers and lightning • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow...
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  Place Value for Kids: Why We Count in Tens 26.09.2026 11mnt

  The story of place value for kids: why ten fingers mean most of the world counts in tens, and how the system we use today grew up in India. • How the Babylonians counted in sixties, which is why an hour has 60 minutes • Why the Maya counted in twenties • How the same digit means one, ten or a hundred depending on where it sits • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear the story of a new great idea ...
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  The Fourth Dimension for Kids: How to Picture a 4D Shape 25.09.2026 10mnt

  The story of Flatland and the fourth dimension for kids: Edwin Abbott Abbott's 1884 book about a square who lives in a flat world and meets a sphere. • What a sphere looks like when it passes through a flat world • How the sphere lifts the square out of Flatland to show him up • Why the shadow of a four-dimensional cube looks like a cube inside a cube • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear the s...
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  The Pigeonhole Principle for Kids: Why Two Pigeons Must Share 24.09.2026 12mnt

  The story of the pigeonhole principle for kids: why two people in London must have the same number of hairs on their heads, and how Peter Dirichlet set out the rule in 1834. • Why more pigeons than pigeonholes means two must share • How a French puzzle book used the hairs example back in 1622 • Why any 13 people include two born in the same month • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear the story ...
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  The Monty Hall Problem for Kids: Why Switching Doors Wins 23.09.2026 13mnt

  The story of the Monty Hall problem for kids: three doors, one car and two goats, and how Marilyn vos Savant explained in 1990 why switching wins twice as often. • Why your first pick has only a one in three chance • How the host's open door is a clue that changes the chances • How even the great mathematician Paul Erdos only believed it after a computer test • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to he...
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  The Four Colour Theorem for Kids: Why Maps Need Four Colours 22.09.2026 12mnt

  The story of the Four Colour Theorem for kids: how student Francis Guthrie noticed in 1852 that four colours are enough for any map, and how it took until 1976 to prove it. • How Alfred Kempe's 1879 proof was believed until Percy Heawood found a mistake • How Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken used a computer for about 1,200 hours • Why mathematicians argued over whether a computer proof counts • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on ...
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  The Seven Bridges of Königsberg for Kids: How Euler Solved It 21.09.2026 11mnt

  The story of the seven bridges of Königsberg for kids: the Sunday walk nobody could finish, and how Leonhard Euler showed why in 1735 by drawing the first network. • How Euler swapped the city for dots and lines • Why every piece of land needs its bridges in pairs for the walk to work • How map apps and the internet use the same idea today • Quiz questions to answer along the way Maths is Not Boring: rated 5★ on Apple Podcasts and 4.7★ on Spotify. Follow or subscribe to hear the story of a ne...