Calculating Distance to the Horizon

Navigation Officer Thomas McAuley demonstrates how to calculate the visible distance to the horizon using circle theorems and Pythagoras' theorem.

Calculating distance to the horizon from NCETM on Vimeo.

Watch the video in the player above or click the following link to watch at NCETM's Vimeo account:

Calculating Distance to the Horizon

Big Ben Strikes Again

Big Ben (well, its tower, lit up at night) Photo via Good Free Photos

This piece of Actual Maths concerns the third episode of the original Captain Scarlet TV series, Big Ben Strikes Again. You can watch it online via Amazon Prime, buy it on DVD, or probably find it elsewhere if you do some Googling. Maybe you've got a dusty old DVD lying around somewhere already or, if you're really retro, a video.

I loved watching repeats of Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet when I was growing up, but the first time I heard about this lovely example of Actual Maths was as the subject of a talk by Matthew Scroggs at Big MathsJam.

If you want to watch the episode before risking spoilers you'll probably want to stop reading about here and come back when it's finished.