Here's a gem of a puzzle to get stuck into over the weekend from TRM intern Mountain Cheng: can you design an intersection of 12 roads such that for any journey you never merge more than 9 times? Full explanation in the article - have fun! tomrocksmaths.com/2026/05/29/r...

Tsutsui Feast at Robinson College Cambridge - for fellows and guests to celebrate everything Robinson. A biennial event funded by a former visiting fellow who wanted us all to remember the joy of being at this fantastic college.

It may have been hotter than a thousand suns but always a pleasure to host an event at the Sheldonian Theatre - it’s just so pretty! Thanks to everyone that came along to the VC-Colloquium Finale and huge congratulations to all of the finalists :)

It may only be by 4 votes but I am absolutely taking the win for round 20 of Numbers vs. Words. 42 may be a little bit of a cheat code for the maths-based audience but it was pushed all the way by the scientific measure for smell. Watch all 20 rounds so far here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

NEW VIDEO: youtube.com/shorts/6DsjE... Rock - Marry - Kill, Millennium Problems Edition: Riemann, Navier-Stokes, P Versus NP. Which do you rock? Which do you marry? Which do you kill? Here's the right answer, but what do you think?

WHAT A DAY. Thanks to Dr Josh Smalley for inviting me to Science Kitchen to make the perfect mixture of maths, baking and science. You’ll be able to watch the entire process of cake baking/cutting, and attempted Platonic Solid biscuit assembly, on the Tom Rocks Maths YouTube channel - COMING SOON!

St Edmund Hall Maths Dinner 2026 - one of my favourite dinners of the year as we bring together all undergraduates, masters students, PhD students and staff for an evening of excellent food and even better conversation. Good luck to all of you with exams in the next few weeks!

If you've ever wondered how we make sense of powers of infinity this is for you. What is infinity squared? Infinity cubed? TRM intern Tavish Gera provides a great explanation by way of example through the Cartesian Product and the Cardinality of a set. Read here: tomrocksmaths.com/2026/05/20/w...

Tattoo 76 - Central Limit Theorem. An incredibly useful result in statistics that says the sample mean for ANY distribution will look like a Normal if your sample size is large enough (usually around 30). So helpful it almost feels like a cheat code…

Today’s teaching notes courtesy of the University of Cambridge and my supervisions at Robinson College. There are two courses shown here - one 1st year and one 2nd year - can you work out what they are?

NEW VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOTO... Watch me have far too much fun talking all things Pokémon for my 2025 TEDx talk. I've read all 1025 entries in the Pokédex and picked out 5 of my favourites that seemingly break physics. Premieres today at 4pm (GMT+1) - see you in the live chat!

Having a blast at Whitgift School earlier this week applying mathematical modelling to my favourite fictional worlds. We may have failed to catch Mewtwo but now we know exactly how to improve the catch probability for next time!

NEW VIDEO: youtube.com/shorts/1Bsrp... Do you know which three cube numbers add together to make 42? Or what the scientific unit is for measuring smell? Round 20 of Numbers vs. Words has got you covered. Watch the video at the link above and then vote for your favourite: forms.gle/31mfBYbQYUFi...

Can you solve these 'simple' algebra problems? Filip Moons excellent lecture as part of the EMS Mathematics Education Series looks at the importance of teaching algebra correctly to help students to avoid common mistakes. I definitely had to think carefully about some of these questions!

Brilliant day filming with Miss Estruch Biology in Oxford with St Edmund Hall looking particularly lovely in the spring sunshine. Video of me taking a GCSE Biology exam coming soon! (yes I don’t know why I figured this was a good idea either… :p)

Had a fabulous time today at the International School of Monaco talking all things fantasy maths. Spent the rest of the day exploring the Monaco and found a great example of cannonball numbers in the wild. If there are 15 cannonballs at the bottom of the square pyramid, how many are there in total?

Problem Solving Matters 2026 Support Year 12 students with TMUA/STEP-style problem solving, delivered across 6 UK universities with the same experience at every location, so they can choose their nearest centre. Starts June: buff.ly/7WON9WL #TMUA #STEP #Maths

Running around Monaco pretending I’m a Formula 1 car vroom vroom… Monaco is the 2nd smallest sovereign state in the world - you can probably guess the smallest - but has the highest population density of any country in the world at ~26,000 per square km. Any idea which others make the top 10?

Loved chatting to you all today at Robinson College and Cambridge Mathematics open day - good luck to everyone with your applications :) And for those of you that missed out, here are my notes on uniqueness of solutions to differential equations… not for the faint hearted!

Just your casual 190 YEAR OLD EXAM! Thanks to Christ’s College Cambridge for providing me with copies of a range of maths exams from almost 200 years ago, which I will of course be attempting to solve in an upcoming video… because what else does a mathematician do?

Loved celebrating all things Public Engagement at Oxford University yesterday with my colleague Joanna. We do this because we think it’s important - and we enjoy it - but always nice to be recognised :) And what a view of the Oxford spires from the newly opened Life and Mind Building!

Another victory for @susiedentwords.bsky.social to take a commanding 5 point lead after 19 rounds of Number vs. Words. Look out for the next one later this week, and catch up on all of the rounds so far here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Is maths a language? An excellent question that led to an entertaining discussion on the importance of definitions, whether maths is created or discovered, how maths has evolved over time, whether maths can have a 'style' or personality, and much more. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQj1...

Update on the 2026 Tom Rocks Maths Essay Competition. The showcase will begin this month and given the 613 entries, will likely last through July. I hope to be able to announce the winners in August ahead of the next academic year beginning in September. I can't wait to read all of your work :)

NEW VIDEO: youtu.be/9HTyblfa47Q Watch me take the full A-level exam 5 years on from the original video that started the 'World Exam' series. What will I score out of 100? Premiere happening right now on YouTube - come say hello :)

Working weekends to get new videos recorded in the studio, including an exam from a new country. Any guesses where I’m heading next?

NEW VIDEO: youtube.com/shorts/mgVrT... 5 years later I take the full A-Level maths exam - will I do better than my first attempt in 2021? Premieres on Sunday 3rd May at 5pm (GMT+1). See you in the live chat!

In my element on stage at Haverhill Science Festival last week - there’s really nothing I love more than being able to share the magic of maths with you all. Thanks to Samuel Ward Academy and Castle Manor Academy for hosting me, and to Haverhill Town Council for organising <3

NEW VIDEO: youtube.com/shorts/Ar1DQ... Rock, Marry, Kill: A-Level Maths Edition - Pure, Mechanics, Statistics. Which one do you rock? Which one do you marry? And which one do you kill? Here's the 'right' answer, but let me know what you'd do in the comments!

Discovered 'Your Name In Landsat' yesterday and have been having far too much fun not to share this with you all. Go to the link below to spell out words using satellite images of the Earth's surface. And try my puzzle :) Make your own here: science.nasa.gov/specials/you...

NEW PODCAST: www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ZR... I talk to my old uni friend Holly - aka the Scouse Scientist - about my journey from Oxford to Cambridge to YouTube to Oxbridge to Countdown, as the first guest on her new podcast "But You Don't Look Like A Scientist". Watch at the link above :)

Shoutout to the Year 11’s and Sixth Form at Watford Boys Grammar for being such a great audience for my talks on Fantasy Mathematics and Mathematical Modelling in Sport. I’ve signed many Pokemon cards, but never a Doublade. SO COOL. Good luck with all of your exams next month - you got this :)

Domus Dinner at St Edmund Hall to mark the start of Trinity Term at Oxford University. Domus means the cost for staff is covered by college - including wine - so it’s always a popular one!

NEW VIDEO: youtube.com/shorts/1OYoj... How many ping pong balls would it take to raise a shipwreck? Or specifically, how many would it take to raise the Vasa, the most intact shipwreck in the world? Maths and history collide in this collab with Chloe from Tiger Lily History :)

I've finally started editing the interviews I recorded at the 2025 Hong Kong Laureate Forum - coming out in the next few weeks/months. Which is the perfect excuse to share some of my favourite photos from the event. It was amazing to meet so many talented young researchers :)

Getting ready for term with some past exam questions in multivariable calculus. Let me know what topics you recognise in the comments :)

NEW VIDEO: www.youtube.com/shorts/CXWH3... Numbers vs. Words Round 19 - Growlery vs. 12,496. Which gets your vote? Rooms named after their function, or sociable numbers. Vote for your favourite here: forms.gle/rT3dW52prKjp...

Tattoo 75 - Divergence Theorem. One of my favourite results in multivariable calculus, allowing you to change between a volume integral and a surface integral depending on which one is easiesr to solve. Part of the first year ‘Vector Calculus’ course I teach at the University of Cambridge.

Snaps from the past week onboard Norwegian Escape. The ‘Star of the Seas’ (seen in Costa Maya) is the largest non-military ship ever constructed at a cost of €2.12 billion. With a capacity of 7,000 passengers, each paying €2,000 per week onboard, how long would it take to recuperate costs?

Channeling my inner Indiana Jones - complete with hat - at Nim Li Punit Mayan Ruins in Belize. SO cool to see their number system first hand where it was carved into stelae used to track the solar calendar. A shell means 0, a dot means 1 and a bar means 5. Everything they needed to work in base 20.

We’re excited to announce that Dr Ismini Pells and Professor Andy Hopper have been shortlisted for Learning Programme of the Year at the Museums and Heritage Awards for The World Turned Upside Down, bringing the British Civil Wars to life for learners everywhere. 🔗 Read more: buff.ly/1zEErs9

Official TEDx Oxford photos are here and they are fab! Amazing to relive this incredible event at the Sheldonian Theatre - look out for the video coming soon!

Exploring cenotes in Cozumel, Mexico. The longest system, Cueva Quebrada, is around 11,500 metres long - around 70% of the islands width and 25% of the islands length. Assuming the island fills 2/3 of a rectangle, approximately what is the area?

NEW VIDEO: Can AI Teach Me Maths? I try questions from 4 different maths exams and ask AI to mark my answers. Can it teach me anything? Premieres today at 5pm (GMT+1) - see you in the live chat!

Catch up on lecture 3 from the European Mathematical Society Education Series from Berkeley Professor Hung-Hsi Wu - a fascinating look at how we should be teaching school mathematics for mastery of the subject. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7KU...

Is it really a Florida trip if you don’t go to the theme parks? Chapter 4 of my book looks at the optimal way to combine maths and magic in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter so _technically_ this counts as research right?

Continuing to visit maths departments around the world. Can you guess this one before swiping to the end for the reveal? The clues get a little easier as you go through - have fun!

You have 5 days remaining to submit your entry to the 2026 Tom Rocks Maths Essay Competition. Write about your favourite maths topic for a non-specialist audience and be in with the chance to win a free place on one of my upcoming courses. Enter here: lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/about/tom-ro...

Always a pleasure to host the Carnival of Mathematics from The Aperiodical, especially when it's a lovely 5-smooth number like 250. Learn about perspective in paintings, the mystery of Unicode U+237C, and a tasty Fermi estimation problem - enjoy!

NEW VIDEO: youtube.com/shorts/-56Gr... Pre-order your copy of my upcoming book 'How Many Pikachus Would It Take To Power A Lightbulb?" and receive a signed Pokémon card. Order here: backstory.london/products/pre...