The quest for a winning formula

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It’s a common notion that Mathematics as a subject in college will lead to nowhere but either becoming a teacher or pursuing MBA. To change this belief, three girls — Nishika Bhatia, Neha Budhiraja and Ashima Sharma — studying Maths (Hons) at Miranda House, Delhi University, have come up with a monthly newsletter Mathletics to show that maths can not only be of use in classrooms but has many other applications as well.

“The basic aim of Mathletics is to bring out a fun side of mathematics and change the notion that Maths (Hons) has restricted options,” says Nishika.
So, the first edition highlighted the use of maths in music. “The front page always contains a main article that talks about a real life interesting application of mathematics. In the second edition, we spoke about the golden ratio that can be observed everywhere around us,” she adds.
To tell students that there is much more to maths than we think, on the second page, the team puts up an article on career counselling. According to them, even the Maths (Hons) students have this notion that there are very limited options after B.Sc Maths (Hons) and they tend to change that, as they think mathematics can take you to a lot of interesting and varied fields.
To make the newsletter fun and attractive, the girls come up with puzzles and cartoons too. “We have a section of puzzles in every edition. All those who send in the correct answers at the earliest are given small tokens of appreciation from us,” says Nishika and adds that the cartoon section is called Ep-Silly, where Ep-Silly wears their department’s T-shirt and gives out advice. “We call it ‘Ep-silly’s Gyaan’,” she says.
The team has come up with three one-page newsletters (both sides printed) till now that has been so well-received by students in the college that they are planning to expand it. In fact, many students from the college have come up with ideas to make the newsletter better and peppier. From a team of three, they may soon become a team of 12.
They have also created a Facebook page of Mathletics, that currently has 820 likes. “We update the FB page with a puzzle on everyday basis. Plus, we give out mathematics-related info besides other interesting posts. We get a response from many people including students and professors. It’s been a great exposure as they take good interest in our posts and help us learn a lot more,” sums Nishika.