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"A sophisticated new analysis of team tactics predicts a Spanish win in Sunday's FIFA World Cup final and also shows why England were beaten by Germany."

Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing

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In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the great mysteries of science - how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder? It's a mind bending, counter intuitive and for many people a deeply troubling idea. But Professor Al-Khalili reveals the science behind much of beauty and structure in the natural world and discovers that far from it being magic or an act of God, it is in fact an intrinsic part of the laws of physics. Amazingly, it turns out that the mathematics of chaos can explain how and why the universe creates exquisite order and pattern.

On the physics and mechanics of a medieval trebuchet, a type of catapult, its design, working and optimization through improved simulation and mathematical analysis.

Building a trebuchet from scratch and finding the best proportions, weights, angles etc by trial and error certainly works ..well, that's how the Grey Co's first machines were done... but if you could model the rock-throwing beasts mathematically then think of the work and possibly wasted effort you could save.