Aims

This course is motivated by the fact that increasing numbers of tech companies require their employees to be equipped with ethical decision-making skills. The content is modelled on that offered by universities such as Oxford and Harvard, who offer modules with the theme of ethics in tech.

The series of lectures prepares students for any lecture style session at university, particularly those related to the social sciences.

Workshops are of the form of university seminars and build your verbal reasoning skills, which will be essential to perform in any interview, both academic and professional.

You will be expected to conduct research relating to the weekly theme and summarise your findings in writing in preparation for the seminar. This prepares students for any academic research, from BA or BSc undergrad project, to Master’s dissertation and PhD submission.

Teaser question: Should an academic, publicly funded institution engage in research into drones for warfare?

Content

Lectures consider ethical perspectives from a range of viewpoints. Each week presents a three-pronged focus as outlined below and offers a set of readings relating to the theme.

Each theme informs the accompanying seminar styled workshop.

The independent study requires you to conduct your own research and to summarise your findings in writing, paying particular attention to your sources.

1. BEING | ACTION | GOOD – Why do the ‘Big Five’ engage in ethical decision making?
2. INDIVIDUAL | PRIVACY | SURVEILLANCE – Why do some groups campaign for increased protection of private data?
3. FREEDOM | CHOICE | IMPACT – How is our freedom to make choices limited by tech and how does tech enable freedom of choice?
4. INCLUSION | DIVERSITY | EQUALITY – Why do organisations feel the need for roles such as dedicated inclusion officer?
5. INNOVATION | CULTURE | SOCIETY – How can innovation benefit culture and support improvements to society?
6. HUMAN | CONSCIOUSNESS | MACHINES – How will a machine ever be able to be aware of human consciousness?

Who’s it for?

The lectures and workshop seminars will benefit everybody who aspires to be a decision maker for both themselves and others, whether that is in a managerial role or as a lead researcher, or indeed any other path of life requiring your input to decision making processes. You will learn how to evaluate both your choices and those presented to you by others.

This course is for all students who are willing to respond to the big questions of human nature and is willing to investigate our future as a species.

NOTE: due to the discussion-based nature of the course, we need a minimum of 8 participants to make running this course viable.

What our students say

“Discuss technology’s effect on ethical dilemmas in a relaxed environment. The more you share your perspective, the more you’ll enjoy it.”

“Absolutely amazing! Be prepared to be really challenged, but also to learn how to challenge others at an equal authority.”

“Ethics was very interesting as it was completely different to the usual work at school. If given the opportunity I would definitely recommend taking it.”

Aims

The programming language C++ is an incredibly popular language, despite being much older than Python, Java or JavaScript. The aim of this course is to offer all students at EMS an introduction to C++, which will help give an insight into how a more formal language works, allowing you to write fast and scalable code bases. It will therefore help to prepare you for coding modules within any STEM degree. C++ is also used by the British Informatics Olympiad in their finals, so it is good preparation for students planning to enter. This course assumes you have some basic Python knowledge, but no knowledge of C.
Look here for why you need C++: https://tinyurl.com/emscpp

Content

Each week will provide a lecture on a concept, such as pointers, or classes in C++. The subsequent workshop session will be used to practise the skill in implementing the concept.

Who’s it for?

Non-Computer Science students will benefit from learning general coding techniques, which will help prepare for any STEM degree where coding is taught as a supplementary skill. Computer scientists will benefit from getting practical experience in coding with pointers and references, and other aspects that are missing or glossed over in python. This will not only benefit all those considering a degree in Computer Science, but also widen their career prospects.

What our students say

“It’s good for detailing the basic foundations of how the language works. It’s quite helpful knowing another language with similar syntax beforehand like Python, but it’s not necessary.”

“It’s very useful as it’s one generation before python and allows greater manipulation of the processor. It involves a few examples and a lot of challenges. Either have cpp.shell ready beforehand or have got VSCommunity working for C++.”

“Go into it expecting to have to learn programming from the ground up.”

Aims

This course contains a lot of content from university engineering courses. It has been reviewed by current and past engineering undergraduate students.

You will learn some of the reasons behind design decisions for a wide range of existing products (both technical and creative), and investigate potential new solutions.

Content

This course is looking at the process of design: the challenges in creating a product from the initial inspiration to a working design.

This course draws from a number of resources, in particular the Open University “Introducing Engineering” course, which leads into all forms of engineering, from software engineering to aerospace.

We will make use of case studies and group tasks to explore key skills in this process.

Who’s it for?

This will suit those looking at courses such as engineering where design and innovation are key focuses. It will also benefit computer scientists looking to produce innovative programs, or handling projects such as the NEA coursework.

Aims

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the rigour and precise nature of Pure Mathematics. Specifically, it will teach you how to make precise statements and how to write down formal proofs. It is designed to make the first lectures in a mathematical university course (specifically in Analysis) a little less strange and daunting.

The format will also be similar to what you will experience at university: each week there will be a fast-paced lecture where you will be expected to take your own notes (although a recording of the lecture will be available to you for a limited time). There will then be a problems class where you try to understand and apply the ideas from the lecture by exploring the examples at your own pace and working through exercises.

Content

We will look at what it means to make a formal definition in Mathematics and how we use it to prove general statements. We start the course by looking at some simple proof in a style which you have already come across. We look at what definitions really are and stop to think about logical deductions. We consider how university proof is different in its rigour to A level proof and consider how to read university level examples. For the majority of the course, we focus on sequences of real numbers and the notion of convergence, including the formal definition. We prove statements such as “the sequence  converges to  as  tends to infinity” and look at other well-known results about convergence of sequences.

Who’s it for?

Given that this course gives a taste of what “real” pure Mathematics is about at university level, it is particularly useful for students who are thinking of studying Mathematics at university (or any related course that has mathematical analysis as part of the degree).

We strongly recommend that you complete this module if you are interested in exploring the later Y13 courses Continued Fractions or Sums and Integrals.

What our students say

“I feel I know more of what to expect now in university. The topics had different complexity which made some weeks easier than others, but this made the course interesting and engaging.”

“Challenging, fast-paced, and rigorous. Take time to understand the theorems and ideas in the lectures before delving into the problem sheets.”

“The course was good, gave me an insight into how different studying at University level is compared to A level.”

“The feedback was incredibly useful for developing my understanding on how to convey what I am trying to say with the maths.”

Aims

This course is excellent preparation for mathematical programming at university, which is very likely to be needed in any Maths or Sciences degree and is often an area in which undergraduate students lack confidence. Most of the projects are based on genuine maths undergraduate programming projects.

We will also develop a number of new mathematical ideas which will be important in undergraduate study.  

Content

The course will consist of a lecture on the mathematical and programming theory required for each project, followed by a supported session working on the project. The projects come with a “hints” sheet. Some content would have been taught in the Further Pure with Technology applied A-level module.

Week	Project	Mathematical Concepts	Programming Concepts
1	An interesting sequence	Conway’s unusual sequence.	Reminder of programming from Y12 EMC Skills; exploring mathematics with programming.
2	Regular numbers	Regular numbers, n-smooth numbers (number theory).	Efficiency of algorithms.
3	Runge-Kutta	Numerical methods of solving differential equations.	Using Matplotlib to draw graphs, using eval().
4	Permutation groups	Groups, permutation groups.	Classes.
5	Farey Series	Farey Series (number theory).	Classes, trees.
6	Markov chains	Markov chains.	Using numpy arrays.

Who’s it for?

This course is primarily aimed at students who wish to study a Mathematics or Sciences degree and want to prepare for programming content. It is ideal for mathematicians whose only experience of programming is the EMC Skills programme in Year 12 – but I will be starting the year by assuming you have forgotten most of it!

It is also open to anyone who wants to practise their programming whilst looking at some new areas of Mathematics, though they should be aware that the course is primarily aimed at non-computer scientists, and ensure they help with a supportive atmosphere for the less confident programmers.

What our students say

“This would be a very good course if you are doing maths at [university] but don’t currently do CS.”

“Practising coding in Maths-specific areas is useful. I would recommend having good knowledge of Python at an intermediate level, but a more basic level would still allow you to complete multiple tasks. My biggest tip would be don’t be afraid to use the hint files as I found them really useful, especially as I had a more basic level of understanding of Python.”

“The problems were interesting and having a new topic each week made the course fast-moving and different each time. This worked really well especially as it meant that if in one topic I did well and found another harder, both only lasted for one week. The ability to progress through different challenges made the difficulty level work no matter the topic.”

Aims

This course will be delivered as pairs of lectures and problems classes, to give you a taster of university-style learning. There will be an emphasis on rigorous proof in the lectures, where this is possible at a pre-undergraduate level, with a limited number of examples. Time for exploring the concepts will mainly be through the weekly problem sheets. There are a mixture of computational and proof questions, at a variety of difficulty levels, to give you the opportunity to develop your problem-solving skills.

This is also one of my favourite areas of Mathematics so I hope you will enjoy studying this beautiful topic!

Content

Continued fractions are an exceptionally elegant way of representing real numbers. We will look at both finite and infinite continued fractions, their convergents, using these to approximate real numbers and selected applications to solving Diophantine equations (including , which may look familiar if you’ve spent time on our top floor!). The final lecture will extend methods of solving Diophantine equations to look at infinite descent.

Who’s it for?

Anyone who enjoys playing with numbers and finds mathematical problem-solving satisfying! Especially recommended if you are thinking of a Maths degree (particularly if you already know that you like pure maths or number theory) but also appropriate for anyone who enjoys recreational Maths.

As part of studying infinite continued fractions means proving that these are well-defined, it is strongly recommended that you have completed the Limits course as a pre-requisite. 

What our students say

“The course had great structure, and everything was laid out well, so it made it easier to follow and understand. It was more like a university-style course, but the content was not too difficult, and could be followed well.”

“A very exciting new way to represent improper fractions, irrational numbers, and surds, and solve a new type of equation too, including the one on the wall of Brahmagupta! The initial concept is very straightforward, but there is a lot to get through. I would say that it is important to take your own notes as there is a lot to understand and missing some crucial parts can make understanding the rest much more challenging.”

“A must-take for anyone interested in number theory. Also a great glimpse of university and proof-based maths because it’s full of detail. I would advise taking time over the assignments to get the most out of the course – especially on the first few lectures to make sure that you’re comfortable with convergents.”

Aims

This course serves as an introduction to vector calculus and the fascinating world of fluid dynamics, which has applications ranging from predicting the weather and modelling climate change, to understanding how planes fly. The Mathematics that will be introduced will build on many of the pure and applied topics from Year 13 such as differential equations, Maclaurin series, planes, matrices and dimensional analysis, and show how these techniques can be used to describe real-world phenomena.

The challenging content of this course will help to prepare students for any applied Mathematics courses at university, particularly in demonstrating how calculus is both versatile and ubiquitous. Students will begin to link together areas that appear as distinct topics in A-level, but at university are often interconnected. .

Content:

The lectures and problem sheets from this course will include:

• Introduction to vector calculus (multivariable functions, partial differentiation, vector fields and the gradient operator)
• Describing properties of fluids (finding the divergence and curl of a vector field and interpreting the results, finding the path traced by a particle in a fluid)
• The Navier-Stokes equation (chain rule for multivariable functions, the material derivative, and deriving the momentum equation)
• Dimensional analysis (deriving the Reynolds number and comparing turbulent and laminar flow)
• Applications (finding the pressure gradient of the atmosphere and ocean, exploring the drag equation using a wind-tunnel simulation)

Who is it for?

Applied mathematicians, physicists and engineers. Anyone who would like to explore an application of their A-level Pure Maths.

It is recommended, but not necessary, that you have studied the Extra Pure module.

What our students say:

“This is a course about asking questions, and trying to understand the answer. If you enjoy pure maths you will love this course. I have learnt to love vector fields, multivariable calculus and composite functions.”

“Very insightful to students going into engineering or otherwise curious about further vector calculus.”

“It’s a chance to experience far more advanced calculus than you would come across at A-level and apply it to interesting and relevant subjects. You get to appreciate the complexity of fluids and time it takes to model and predict its behaviour.”

Aims

This course will allow you to gain insight into the topic of topology (the study of properties of geometric objects preserved under continuous stretching). This will give you a taste of how Mathematics at a higher level can use techniques from familiar topics to study new areas.  

Content

After a general introduction you will be introduced to knot polynomials and other invariant properties. Knots are twisted loops in 3-dimensional space. We will not be tying knots that you may have met in scouts!

I have taken some content from a 30 hour third-year undergraduate course in knot theory, to produce a short course accessible to A-level students.

Some of the knot invariants will require substantial use of modulo arithmetic, polynomials, and matrices. Some spatial awareness is useful but not essential.

Who’s it for?

I hope it is accessible to anyone, all are welcome at the very least. Ideal for anybody who is applying for a Mathematics degree to gain an insight into an area of topology.

What our students say

“Quite complex and need lots of focus, but really interesting, and well taught.”

“It’s knots, but knot as you know them. You learn about the various invariant properties, and the notation used in knot theory. However, I’m frayed that I can’t rank the knots, because they’d all be tied.”

“Interesting course about mathematical knot theory. Very specialised area – briefly includes matrices, but otherwise not going to include or apply to anything else you already know. Lots of problem solving. Useful to be able to visualise knots topologically. Necessary to be able to reliably copy knot drawings correctly. Maybe bring a piece of string if you want a little extra help visualising the knots!”

“I found the whiteboards very helpful for creating and altering the knot diagrams.”

Aims

This is an advanced Statistics course run by Emeritus Professor Trevor Bailey. It will give you a very high-level introduction into real, contemporary statistical modelling techniques, as actually used by scientific researchers. The course contains a wealth of real-life examples that Professor Bailey has encountered in his career.

Content

This course is designed to provide a personal (and hopefully very contemporary) perspective on statistical modelling focussing on Bayesian approaches and associated methods (such as Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques and variants of that). The focus will be on practical implementation of the methods using the statistical programming language R and related packages (including links between R and JAGS and INLA).

The course is arranged into three parts:

Part 1: Laying the foundations

What is a statistical model? How do you ‘fit’ a statistical model? Review of the Bayesian Approach, MCMC and Hastings-Metropolis algorithm, model checking and inferential ideas. Examples of implementing a range of simple Linear and Generalised Linear models using R and links between R and JAGS.

Part 2: Building on the basics

Further examples of standard models using R, INLA and links between R and JAGS. Including Generalised Linear Mixed models, handling categorical explanatory variables, interactions, survival models, censoring, time series and spatial models.

Supplement: Decorating the cake

A brief discussion of more advanced models and techniques, including spatio-temporal, multinomial, ordinal, Generalised Additive, and extreme value models, Reversible Jump (RJMCMC), model averaging and Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC).

The course is appropriate for those interested in statistical modelling in application areas such as epidemiology, public health, medical statistics, environmental science, bioscience and the social sciences. It will assume background knowledge of routine statistical ideas and related concepts and some familiarity with R. It will be challenging and will cover a lot of material, but it will not assume a high level of theoretical mathematical statistical knowledge.

Who’s it for?

Anyone interested in taking a STEM degree at university or wishing to develop employability skills with Data Science, especially those considering careers involving statistical research.

Experience of using R is not assumed, although you can expect a very rapid learning curve in it, so a tiny bit of background may be helpful. Most of the code is provided but you will need to spend some time getting used to it!

Aims

This course gives you the opportunity to explore some of the main topics that would otherwise be in Mechanics Major. Concepts will be explored by applying techniques from pure maths in addition to new, mechanics-specific methods. There is a lot of overlap with Physics content, but this course will explore topics from first principles and extend your thinking to harder problems.

Each week will have a lecture followed by a problems class.

It is strongly recommended that you complete this course if you are taking STEP III, as you will then be able to access mathematical questions on circular motion and oblique collisions.

Content:

This course models situations involving circular motion and uses calculus to derive the equations for circular motion with variable acceleration. We will also investigate rotational energy and the derivation of the formulae for moments of inertia. We will then consider oblique and successive collisions using pure maths techniques (dot product and matrices) as well as the more typical geometrical analyses. The workshops will have challenging problem-solving questions, including angular momentum and the old STEP circular motion questions.

The course will cover:

• Angular speed and acceleration of an object moving in horizontal and vertical circles
• Use of vector notation to describe circular motion
• Solving problems where an object does not stay on the circle
• Kinetic energy of a rotating rigid object
• Moment of inertia calculations
• Angular momentum modelling
• Hooke’s Law including problems in two dimensions
• Elastic potential energy of a spring
• Impulse and momentum in two dimensions
• Oblique impacts with smooth planes
• Oblique collisions between two objects

Who is it for?

Budding physicists, engineers and applied mathematicians. You do not need to be taking Physics to take this course, though it would give you more familiarity with the topic.

What our students say

“It’s a good course to add onto knowledge learnt in Mechanics Minor.”

“The course covers all Maths to do with circles. There isn’t very much to do with circles in the normal curriculum anymore, so this course covers circle-related Maths from what is required to maintain movement in a circle to moments of inertia.”

“A must do course for anybody interested in mechanics.”

Aims

This course will help you develop a greater depth of understanding and appreciation for the rigour behind various aspects of calculus, as well as the opportunity to apply familiar ideas in new contexts. It will give you a taste of university-style learning and thinking.

It is strongly recommended that you complete this course if you are taking STEP II or STEP III, as you will then be able to access questions on continuous random variables, centres of mass for objects created as volumes of revolution or arc lengths of curves.

Content

How does calculus actually work?
Why do we care about areas under curves?
How are moments and masses are connected to means and medians?

We’ll look at one way to explore integration from first principles, and use integration in a variety of new situations, some of which may surprise you. This topic links to a wide range of mathematical topics: Pure Maths and proof, Mechanics and physical properties of objects, and Statistics and the study of continuous random variables.

By the end of this course you should recognise the fundamental importance of calculus in a variety of applications, and begin to appreciate how it can be used in situations beyond school-level maths, including 3-dimensional calculations beyond finding the volume of a surface of revolution. You will also have gained additional insight for efficient ways to find areas under curves in particular circumstances.

We will also share examples of general integration “tips and tricks”.

Who’s it for?

This is very much a general interest course that is applicable to anyone at EMS! It will be particularly useful for people considering Maths, Physics or Engineering-related degrees.

It is strongly recommended that you have completed the Limits course as a pre-requisite. We also use partial differentiation, so it is recommended that you have studied the Extra Pure module.

What our students say

“Excellent. The course is really interesting, with focuses in later lectures on both mechanical and statistical applied mathematics, although just the pure maths alone is also worth it.”

“Come prepared to draw a lot of diagrams, and to be slightly lost for a while until everything falls into place all at once! This was my favourite Curriculum X course I’ve ever done, and definitely the one I understood the most. It’s improved my understanding of not just integrals but also some of mechanics and statistics.”

“Sign up to the course if you want to learn extra knowledge about integration and the various derivations of probability/area/volume things. If you hate drawing graphs or handling long proofs or investigating integration theory then you might not enjoy it so much.”

Aims

Most university pure mathematics falls into one of two broad areas: the study either of continuous or of discrete mathematical objects. Group Theory can be applied to both areas but is most closely associated with discrete mathematics.

Informally, group theory is the study of symmetry. One of the earliest successes of group theory is the proof by Évariste Galois, in the early 19^th century, that there is no solution ‘in radicals’ to a general polynomial of degree 5.

Group theory has many applications within and outside mathematics. For example, it is crucial to cryptography (the study of secret codes), to theoretical physics (for example in gauge theory), and to crystallography.

In this course, you will study Group Theory in the formal axiomatic way that it is taught at university. Through this, you will also become acquainted with the university approach to mathematical proof – an approach that involves logical argument from definitions rather than reliance on examples.

Moreover, you’ll be in the vanguard of new generation of mathematicians by learning to write group theory proofs using LEAN, a computer-based interactive theorem prover. LEAN can also be seen as a functional programming language that implements dependent type theory.

Tools like LEAN are heavily used in the burgeoning area of software verification: proving that software does what it claims to do.

Content

You will learn: the formal definition of a group; how to prove that a given structure is or is not a group; basic properties of groups that follow from the definitions and how to prove them (examples include the uniqueness of inverse); the definition of a subgroup; how to prove that a given subset of a group is or is not a subgroup; the notion of homomorphism between two groups; the notion of isomorphism of groups; basic properties of homomorphisms and isomorphism.

You will learn to do all the above in the language of the interactive theorem prover LEAN. You will learn how to use the LEAN Infoview to help you write proofs and to identify and rectify errors in proofs.

Who is it for?

This course is for any student who is interested in studying pure mathematics at university. It will be helpful for those interested in theoretical physics, functional programming, dependent type theory, or software verification.

This builds on the group theory ideas in Extra Pure, so it is strongly recommended that you have studied this module first.

What our students say

“I would describe this course as a fun introduction to writing formal proof with the aid of software. I would advise any prospective student to forget what they know about rewriting expressions (associativity, commutativity, distributivity, etc.) and only think about what you can prove by the group axioms.”

“You learn theory first, and then you get to use the theory to prove various theorems. Sometimes these are left-overs from theory lessons and sometimes they are completely new theorems.”

“If you’re a fan of rigour and programming, absolutely do this.”

Aims

Who hasn’t stared into the night sky and felt ever so tiny? Or imagined the fiery, raging, unbelievably violent surface of each and every pinprick of light? Or felt awed by the absurdity of the distance in between?

The delivery of this course will be overwhelmingly lecture-style. There will be content not found elsewhere in A-level. There will be insight into the way that human knowledge improves, evolves over time, including the unexpected barriers to progress.

Content

Unassisted observation – what can we see with the naked eye? What can we deduce from that? Time and rotations. The moon. Constellations.

Telescopes, how they work. Stars – types and classification, galaxies and their structures. Hubble and the cosmos, redshift and seeing into the past.

Who’s it for?

Anyone, non-physicists welcome.

What our students say

“Best Curriculum X ever.” *

“Amazing – my life is now complete.” *

* Projected comments. Student experiences may differ.

Aims

An interdisciplinary course with the ultimate goal of explaining how information is digitised and sent. The course will provide a good example of the application of Mathematics and Physics in the context of Computer Science and give a broad understanding of modern communication systems. The light introduction to information theory would certainly be useful to those going on to study Computer Science.

Content

1. Information and signalling – What is information and what forms does it take? How can we get information from one place to another quickly?
2. Analogue signalling – looking at ways of sending a continuous signal
3. Digitisation – converting analogue signals to digital and the reasons for doing so
4. 0’s and 1’s – sending digital signals and the theoretical limits to data transfer speed
5. Possible extension 5G – what makes 5G better (and can it give you coronavirus)

 

Who’s it for?

Recommended for computer scientists. It will be accessible to non-physicists.

Suitable for anyone who is interested in how their phone can access the internet or wants to know why their download speed is slower when they get further from their WiFi router.

What our students say

“A good introductory dive into signalling, looking at signalling basics and also more in depth in specific areas like noise. Not aimed towards Physics or Computer Science, finding a middle ground making it good for all EMS students.”

“Malcolm explains how information is sent from theoretical models of communication down to the delay in varying of voltage in a cable. Perfectly combines Maths, Physics and Computing. Be warned you might sometimes just not understand what’s going on – but that’s OK!”

“This is a very interesting course that goes over a variety of topics relating to the subject of signals and communication. It’s actually a very big subject, so while it mainly covers the basics, it’s done so in a palatable way that can help you understand a bit more about how signals work and the challenges that exist when it comes to sending them.”  

Aims

This course introduces different models of light, including a basic quantum mechanical model for describing photons. This will be solid foundation for university level Physics, introducing several ideas that crop up throughout all undergraduate courses. This is a remarkable and interesting topic to explore but it will expose you to a level of conceptual challenge unlike any you have met before.

Content

1. Optics – traditional models of refraction
2. History of light – the important scientific discoveries that have led to our current understanding of light
3. Understanding photons
4. Quantum behaviour – photon models for propagation – why does light appear to travel in straight lines?
5. The speed of light – why is it constant and why does it appear to change in different media?

Who’s it for?

Recommended for anyone considering a degree in Physics. This course will not be suitable for non-physicists.

What our students say

“Great chance to learn what light really is and how it was discovered. Some good demonstrations as well. You will leave 10x wiser and 10x more confused on the topic. Come in with an open mind.”

“This course explores a variety of aspects regarding light, ranging from basic concepts such as lenses and refraction to more complex topics such as the quantum nature of light. Do: expect to learn some very interesting concepts regarding light as both a wave and as a particle. Don’t: expect to understand everything about light at the end of course (nobody fully understands it!).”

Aims

This short course will help show you how computers can be used to calculate a solution to problems, using python. It will further prepare you for university in the lecture format and improve your programming ready for most STEM courses. It is good at showing the links between Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics.

Content

We will discuss what things affect the length of day on different time scales. We will then focus on the equation of time and attempt to calculate, using python, how this affects our length of day throughout the year.

• The equation of time.
• Torsional oscillations.
• Tidal locking.

Who’s it for?

This is ideal for anyone who is interested in astronomy, Earth and planetary science. It is a great course to improve your python programming if you are still a beginner and see how programming is an essential skill if you are thinking of heading off to a Geophysics/Physics/applied Mathematics degree.

What our students say

“It is good for anyone. Only basic Physics knowledge is needed, if any, and some basic programming skills are helpful but definitely not necessary.”

“An incredibly interesting mix of Maths, Physics and Computer Science, with a pleasing result at the end of the course.”

“A superb and friendly introduction to how programming and numerical methods can be used in physics. A great cross-curricular course that is accessible everyone, no matter your experience coding in Python.”