Another Discovering Mathematics input I enjoyed was Maths and Astronomy delivered by Dr. Simon Reynolds from Dundee Science Centre. Space has always been a particular favourite science topic of mine. It is often used as a topic in schools therefore it is perfect for highlighting cross-curricular links between maths and science.

Some of the maths involved in understanding space is scale (with regards to the size of the moon in relation to the earth) and distance (with regards to the distance of the moon from earth) which is 384,400 km. I think a lot of the time space in primary schools is taught with more emphasis of being able to name all the planets and put them in order from the sun, rather than some fundamental concepts like scale and distance.

I think children would be interested in learning about things such as lightyears. This is the measure of distance, not time. One lightyear is the distance light travels in one year. Light travels ,in a vacuum, at 300,000,000 metres per second.

During the input we also learned that there is no actual real photographs of the whole Milky Way as the galaxy is just far too big there is no way any human has ever been on the outside of it to be able to take a photo. This links to infinity (which is said to be the size of the universe). Infinity is an abstract concept used to describe something that knows no bounds; it is never ending. It is a concept widely used in mathematics and physics.