Maths in the wild: Maths Week Scotland
By Fatin Mohd Sayuti and Chenyi He
From 21 to 28 September, Scotland celebrated Maths Week 2025, and this year’s theme – Wild Maths – invited everyone to step outdoors and discover that mathematics lives not just in textbooks, but in forests, gardens, and even city streets. Across the country, organisations ran activities for learner of all ages, proving once again that maths is full of surprises when we let it roam free.
The Maths Outreach Team proudly joined the celebration with three events, all designed around one mission: to show that maths can be joyful, playful, and wonderfully curious. With puzzles, illusions, games, history, and even a sprinkle of ‘magic’, our team helped challenge the old myth that maths is scary or intimidating. Instead, as our visitors learned – maths can be a game, an adventure… and even a laugh!
Maths Pop Up at Waverley Mall
We kicked things off with our Maths Pop Up event at Waverley Mall, right in the heart of Edinburgh. Armed with tables full of puzzles and mind-bending props, our cheerful volunteers transformed a small corner of the mall into a playground of mathematical curiosity.
The geometric puzzles were the star of the show. At first glance, they looked simple, but once people began playing, they quickly realised that shapes can be far trickier than they seem. Then came the optical illusions: parabolic mirrors and Sugihara models, which are fascinating objects that appear as completely different shapes depending on the viewing angle. Watching them appear to stretch or transform felt almost like magic, sparking both excitement and disbelief.
If you’re curious, check out this video of Sugihara’s incredible illusions:
Since the event started on a weekday afternoon, the crowd size was manageable, perfect for giving every visitor personal attention. Most participants were adults, many of whom confessed they had never associated mathematics with illusions or magic tricks. But they left with big smiles. Even better, several young visitors insisted on returning for a second round to try props they missed the first time. A true win!
Edinburgh Doors Open Day Booth
Our second event happened on Saturday, during Edinburgh’s Doors Open Day. McEwan Hall buzzed with energy as visitors wandered between booths and admired the gorgeous interior. This time, we brought an even wider variety of themes to our Maths Outreach stand: Physics, cartography, geography, and topology. The infinite tunnel illusion was a crowd favourite. People leaned over the table to see lights stretched into what looked like a never-ending tunnel deep beneath them, some even checking under the table for a hidden tunnel.
For our mind-reading trick, the ‘Binary Magic Cards’, someone from the audience would choose a number, check out the cards, and we’d reveal their answer inst
antly. People were impressed when we ‘guessed’ number after number – a trick that comes straight from how computers read and decode binary information.
Our visitors, from the very young to the elderly were drawn to the Chinese puzzle, eagerly sliding the flat-edged pieces around to see if they could put the shape back together. Right beside it, we had our colourful three rings puzzle – the hoops looked simple at first glance, but once visitors realised the rings linked together without any two being directly connected, the challenge became irresistible, as we heard so many versions of, “I’m giving up… Wait, one more hint!”, and worked through it with them, sharing the fun as the table got livelier.
With the ‘Packing Squares’ puzzle, where the goal is to fit 11 squares inside a larger square in a smart way (inspired by the mathematical square-packing problem, which studies how many congruent squares can be packed into some larger shape, such as a square or circle), a few quickly discovered that certain moves were absolutely impossible. This naturally led to the classic, half-joking question: “Are you sure this thing even has a solution?”
Beyond the fun and games, our team enjoyed heartfelt conversations with visitors about what mathematics means to us. Those moments showed just how powerful outreach can be: helping people see maths as creative, puzzling, and deeply human. The seven-hour day flew by thanks to the infectious excitement from the public.
Edinburgh Mathematical Walking Tour
On a sunny Saturday morning, 26 participants joined us for the Edinburgh Mathematical Walking Tour along the Royal Mile – a mix of city history, puzzles, storytelling, and a bit of theatrical flair.
At the Witching Well, we introduced a strategy game involving coloured cards and accusations of witchcraft. Luckily, everyone proved innocents. Further along, outside Camera Obscura, families puzzled over how the famous telescope flips image upside down with a little help from Pythagoras. At the Luckenbooths, we dabbled in cryptography and cracked coded verses from Walter Scott. At The World’s End pub, participants debated whether a cup’s height or circumference was longer. And finally, at the Scottish Parliament, we tackled a strategic voting puzzle involving district design and clever partitioning. The solutions were as impressive as they were chaotic – a perfect finale! The morning ended with a shared appreciation for the hidden mathematics in Edinburgh’s streets.
Across all three events, our team met hundreds of curious members of the public. From illusions to puzzles, from history to strategy games, we spent the week proving that mathematics is not just something you learn – it’s something you can play with.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on this wild mathematical adventure. We can’t wait for next year!
