Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Maths EPQ?

Hi I just started doing an EPQ on maths and the question I finally settled on is " Was maths invented or discovered?" But when I started researching this idea there was so much information, so I was wondering whether I should narrow down my question? Also, if anyone has any books or films that relate to this topic could you let me know because we are supposed to use a wide range of sources and all I can find are internet links. Any advice on what direction I could take this would be great. :smile:

Reply 1

CancerousProblem

Sounds like a philosophy/maths EPQ. That's not going to be easy to write man.

Pure maths EPQ on its own is probably the hardest to write though, I don't see any original topics you can write about.

If you really wanted to do a maths EPQ, imo your best bet would be to do a maths/physics EPQ that questions the validity of some sort of model in maths/physics e.g. air resistance is proportional to v^2, ie air resisitance = k*surface area*v^2. If you're not into the validity of such models you can investigate the value of k for various shapes and use differential equations to model it, then confirm your answer with fluid dynamics by running simulations with a computer.

BAM, it's great for computer science + maths or applied maths.