“ Use an equation like a magnif ying
glass and it can change the way you
view the universe”
annah Fry is thrilled about
the prospect of owning her
first house. Built in
Greenwich in 1875, it’s only
had three previous owners,
as each family has lived there for a long time.
“It needs a lot of work, we’ll move out for the
st r uct ura l st uf f. Have to save money f irst , t hough,”
Hannah says, with a slight gritting of teeth. “It’s very
quirky, but traditional inside – it doesn’t make sense,
it’s a bit upside down.” With ceiling roses, cornicing
and those incredibly high, Victorian ceilings, the place
has plenty of charming period features. But picking
this property wasn’t as impulsive and romantic a
decision as it sounds – in fact, it was the result of
mathematical methodology.
“My husband Phil and I had a little f lat a couple of
years ago and were wanting to move as we were having
a baby,” Hannah says. “It was stressful, so I decided to
do a proper analysis and come up with a mathematical
model of where we should end up. First of all, we
worked out the things that were of value to us: family,
transport, even the quality of local butchers. We wrote
down all these factors and then evaluated them for the
areas we were looking at. It determined what property
we bought and the area we now live in.”
It’s tempting to write her off as a geek, but Hannah isWith a head for numbers and a twinkle in her eye, TV presenter, podcast host, author and academic
Dr Hannah Fry believes maths can make the world a better place, she tells Ruth Chandler
just a s cha r m ing a nd at t ract ive a s she is sma r t. Da m n
it. And her enthusiasm for the power of maths and
its usefulness in everyday life is properly infectious,
even for those who believed they were no good at
the subject at school. “There’s this strange belief that
we are divided neatly into those who find maths easy
and those who find it hard. And that some people get
it straight away,” she says. “It’s not true – everyone
finds it hard, it’s just that the mathematicians don’t
mind how hard it is. Maths is 98% frustration. Most
of t he t ime you’re feeling like ever yone else does at
school when they just don’t get how things fit together.
When it all makes sense, there’s the 2% of joy that
means it’s worthwhile.”NOT JUST NUMBERS
Typically, we hear the word ‘mathematician’ and think
of an academic for whom digits are everything. But to
think of maths as just numbers is to do the subject
disservice, says Hannah. “Some people are just mad
about numbers, get really nerdy about them and want
to break down, say 2019, in lots of different ways. I like
all that, but I prefer the proper poetry.” Hannah is an
associate professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the
Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL
(University College London). But don’t let that
ludicrously long and cryptic title put you off. In a