I’ve entitled my speech on Maths. So I’ll speak on Mathematics but don’t worry I won’t talk shop. I’ve split my talk into three parts. Firstly I’ll try to answer the question “what is Mathematics? “. Secondly I’ll speak about the origin of Maths and its current situation. Finally I’ll show that Mathematics is connected with Magic.

What is Mathematics? At first glance we think of Maths as a science dealing with numbers and complicated calculations that only a handful of people can understand. In my opinion, Mathematics is much more than that. When you are seeking the solution of a problem you need to use a variety of intellectual skills: you have to understand the data, look for a relation between them and design a procedure to achieve the solution. All these abilities are essential in education and so, in this sense, Maths goes beyond simple calculations. Also I’d like to say that Maths is the language of Nature. In fact when we want to represent the world around us we necessarily have to use maths. Physics, Chemistry, Medicine use Mathematics.

What is the origin of Maths? At the beginning people needed to count: they needed to count days, animals, possessions, etc. and they invented the numbers. Over the years human beings faced more complex problems and new concepts were necessary. Although the ancient Greeks drew on the ideas of various earlier civilizations, they established the basis of our mathematics. They posed and solved a big amount of problems. One of them they couldn’t solve is known under the name of “squaring the circle”. I’ll talk about it for two reasons. On one hand because it was the origin of one of the most famous numbers, the number pi. On the other hand because this expression is sometimes used in normal conversations and I’m not sure that everyone knows what it means.

The Greeks could calculate the area of simple geometric figures such as squares, rectangles or triangles but they didn’t know how to obtain areas of circles. In order to find the solution they tried to fill up a circle given with simple polygons. This method is known as “squaring the circle” but they couldn’t square circles. Even more, in the nineteenth century Ferdinand von Lindemann proved that circles couldn’t be squared.

What is the situation of Mathematics at present? In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Mathematics had a huge development. New abstract theories were brought out but Maths had a collapse mainly for two reasons. Firstly, these theories could be understood for only very few people. Secondly mathematicians were considered to be out of real life because most new concepts were totally useless.

Due to computers the situation completely changed and Mathematics blossomed again. A branch of Mathematics known as Numerical Analysis has played a predominant role in the world of Maths and we can say that Maths are present in almost every aspect of real life. I think the future has in store a privileged place for Mathematicians.

Finally I’ll try to show you that Maths is connected with Magic. Cut a long rectangle from a piece of paper and draw a line splitting it into two parts. Join its ends after twisting it 180 degrees. With a pair of scissors cut the strip along the line. You won’t get two strips, you’ll get one longer strip. This surface is known as “Möbius strip” or “Mobius band” and is has an interesting property: it has only one face.

And now a mixture of Maths, chocolate and magic. Think of the number of times you felt like eating chocolate last week, a number between 1 and 9. Multiply by 2. Add 5 and multiply by 50. Add 1757 if you have celebrated your birthday this year. Add 1756 if no. Finally subtract the year of your birth. You get a three figure number. The first figure on the left is the number of time you felt like eating chocolate last week. The other two figures is the answer to the question how old are you?

José Ángel

TAI CHI CHUAN

There are two important concepts in Chinesse culture and also in tai chi chuan

Yin - Yang

This is probably the most fundamental of the theories that contribute to the Chinese world view.

It is the theory of duality which is also known in classical western philosophy except that is not used as a basis to explain the nature and composition of the perceived universe. It represents the positive and negative in the universe. In the martial arts, it represent stillness and motion, hardness and softness and other opposites.

It is a circle divided between a dark and a light half .It is also the Taiji symbol which represents two mutually complementary forces in nature

Chi

Chi means life force energy

There are 3 kinds of chi : Heavens chi, earth chi and human chi .

Definitions

• It´s an internal (referring to the power generated by the chi) martial art
• Ying-Yang boxing.
• It´s an ancient Chinese exercise and fighting system, still practised in China and elsewhere in the world, mainly for its health benefits. It employs slow and graceful movements.

The practise of Tai Chi Chuan not only benefits the body, but also the mind. The way that it is learnt consists of many different movements. The mind is so absorbed by this , that day-to-day worries are left aside. This results in a perceptible increase in mental sharpness and self confidence.

Tai Chi as a Martial Art

Every posture that is learnt by the student has martial application. Students train with partners learning how to sense the direction of an attack and, to quote the classic teaching of the art, to use one ounce to deflect a thousand pounds. The training of martial skills in Tai Chi Chuan starts in the same way as training for health and relaxation. That is, slowly. The most important approach to the art, whether you simply wish to improve your health or become a martial artist, is patience.

The Legend

Legend has it that the Taoist saint, Chang San-feng (1247-1447) left the Shaolin monastary to live out his final hermitage in the mountains near Wu-dang. While in a state of deep meditation he witnessed a fight between a snake and a crane. In this combat, he observed how the softness and flexibility of the snake neutralized the powerful attack of the crane with its sharp bill. But, the swiftness of the snake could not overcome the subtle movements of the crane . After witnessing this battle he was inspired to modify his hard Shaolin form into a soft style: the tai chi chuan. The form (a sequence of movements )

he developed consisted of only thirteen postures, corresponding with the eight trigrams (heaven , earth water , fire ,wind ,thunder , lake and mountain ) of the I Ching (Book of Changes) and the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water .

Legend aside, In Henan province , Chen’s family developed their Taijiquan form in the 15th century, and kept it as a family secret. In the 19th century, Yang Lu-chan ,as a servant for the Chen family, observed their practice of Taijiquan. When he was finally discovered he was allowed to continue training.

Once his training was complete, Yang, settled in Beijing to teach his new art, and was frequently challenged by other Kung Fu masters. He easily defeated them all and was nicknamed Yang, the Ever Victorious. Yang broke the tradition of teaching only family members, making the Yang Style form the most practiced Taijiquan style in the world.

The main styles of Taichi are : Chen , Wu , Sun and Yang .

CHENG MAN CHING FORM

Cheng Man Ching (1901-1975) .He studied the Yang style and with his master permission, he shorted the Yang form which has 108 movements in Cheng Man Ching´s form with 37 steps.

He was a master in the five Chinese arts (painting, poetry, medicine, calligraphy and taichi).

When asked by a student “What the most important reason to study Tai Chi Chuan was?”, Master Cheng Man Ching replied, “The most important reason is that when you finally reach the place where you understand what life is about, you’ll have the health to enjoy it.”

The Cheng Man Ching form is an empty hand form .Other kinds of empty hand tai chi have to practice in pair

• Tui shou ( PUSHING HANDS)
• Dalu
• San shou

Taichi as a martial art also uses weapons :

• Dao (Sabre) is the weapon of 100 days .That was the time a soldier needed to learn how to use it.
• Jian ( sword ).
• Qiang ( Spear.)
• Guai Zhang (Different sorts of sticks).
• Shan (Fan.)

When you practice taichi you have to:

• Hold the chest in and pull up the back
• Relax the hips
• Bend the knees
• Sink the shoulders and drop the elbows
• Move with continuity
• Move with tranquillity
• Using the mind instead the force

Each movement or step has a name, sometimes referring to animals:

• grasp the sparrow tail
• white crane reveal wings
• repulse monkey
• embrace tiger

And others quite poetic like:

• Play the lute
• Step forward seven starts
• Hands like clouds.

Teresa Castañón 5º 5.30-7

TRIP TO LONDON

Today I’m going to talk about the trip to London I went on last march. It was a trip organised by the language school and consisted of six days in London. We were a group of 33 people and 2 teachers came with us.

We travelled with easy jet, it was the first time I got on a plane so I was a bit nervous, when I was sitting there my hands were sweating a lot, but after a while, I relaxed and enjoyed the journey. We arrived at Stansted at about 6 pm, a bus took us to the hotel.

The Hotel’s name was “royal national”, it was a huge hotel with more than one thousand two hundred rooms, it was really interracial, you could find people from everywhere at the hotel, especially Spanish people. That day we rested an hour at the hotel’s room and then we went to have a drink to a typical English pub, we went to Camden’s area by foot.

The next day we went on a sightseeing tour by bus to the most important places in London, we stopped at special places to take photos. That evening we visited The National Gallery, which is placed in Trafalgar Square, I wanted to see some paintings I know like “the Arnolfini marriage” or “Van Gogh’s chair” and we returned really early to the hotel because we were very tired. On the way back to the hotel, it started snowing, it was a really cold day.

On Wednesday we went to Cambridge, the bus left us at the outskirts of the town and a guide explained us everything about the place, we visited a College called Queens College and then we had a free evening, so we visited some shops. We arrived at London at about 5 pm, and that day we visited the British Museum, which I found especially interesting because I’ve always loved old Greek culture.

The rest of the days we used to take the subway at half past nine and went to places like, Natural history Museum, Oxford Street, the London eye, Harrods… etc

I found everything very expensive, for example a one day ticket for the subway costs more than 5 pounds, that’s more than 7 euros, the London eye costs 16 pounds, that’s more than 20 euros, and despite the fact that I liked the city very much, I found it a very stressing place, I wouldn’ t stay there more than a week.

Paula Seijo 4-5.30

 

 

BULLYING

 

It may have been at school or in the workplace or it may even have occurred right at home but most of us, at one time or another, have to deal with a bully.

The question is: What exactly constitutes bullying?

Well, it’s not quite the same as harassment or assault but it tends to involve many small incidents that accumulate over the time. Psychologists identify bullying like “a wilful conscious desire to hurt another and put him or her under stress”. The stress is created not only by what actually happens, but also by fear or what might happen. Tactics may include harsh teasing, constant criticism, insults and gossip.

 

There are 4 types of Bullying:

 

- Physical Bullies: These are the easiest of identify. They bring out their anger by hitting, shoving or kicking their victims.

- Verbal Bullies: they use words to hurt and humiliate their target, through either name-calling, insults…

- Relationship bullies: They spread nasty rumours about their target. Adopted by female bullies.

- Reactive victims: These are victims of bullying who turn into bullies themselves.

 

These are not isolated cases because bullying among school-age children occurs worldwide. For example, Children also create hate Web pages about a victim including personal information.

However weird this may sound, I wouldn’t attach excessive importance to it because most children have to go through it and it’ll make you stronger, provided it doesn’t endanger a child’s mental health.

Personally I still remember when, as a child, I used to be teased about being fat, but it never affected me as much as to consider it a real problem and of course it has never crossed my mind to turn myself into a bully.

 

Kilian Piñero Alonso 5º 5.30-7