Beauty in maths topic

Real World Environments

Environmental systems are a natural place to see mathematics as modelling: simplified rules, real constraints and visible consequences.

live pages

prototype tools

planned ideas

What this area includes

River flow and flood-risk decisions

Sunlight, optimisation and tree-like structures

Diffusion, pollution and movement through networks

Agent-based ecological and resource models

What has the model chosen to ignore?

Which parameter has the biggest effect?

How can mathematics support decisions without pretending to be reality?

These are the pages currently available to open from this topic.

Explore rainfall, storage, release decisions and flood thresholds.

A simplified model asking whether tree-like panel arrangements can collect changing sunlight.

These ideas are not built yet, but they show where this topic could grow next.

ideaPlanned

Planned exploration of heat, pollution or information flowing across connected networks.

ideaPlanned

Planned model using optimisation to ask when reservoirs should store or release water.

ideaPlanned

Planned simulator for ecosystems where many simple local decisions produce population-level patterns.

A portal for connected mathematical explorations: pattern, surprise, structure, nature and emergence.

Optimisation, scheduling, routing, allocation and making good decisions under constraints.

These pages are designed to make assumptions visible, so students can question the model as well as use it.