Organize an event!
The best way to celebrate the International Day of Mathematics is to organize your own local event.
No plans are too big or small: invite your classroom or better yet have the whole school participate, schedule a special gathering at a library or museum, involve your local university or researchers, make a big public party at a park, reach out to your local cultural, social or youth center.
Things to do on the International Day of Mathematics
The Art Gallery and the Fortress Problem
New! A mathematical puzzle about placing the smallest number of security cameras in an art gallery so that every single spot of the gallery is under surveillance.
Tilings
New! A game with tiles of different shapes: triangles, squares, hexagons, and the new Einstein tile. Try to put them next to each other without leaving any space between them and without the tiles overlapping.
Tower of Hanoi and Tower of Stockmeyer
A mathematical puzzle about transferring a pile of different sized discs from one place to another. This activity offers many variations of the classical game to explore.
Mathematics Scavenger Hunt
A game where small teams search for mathematically interesting items from a list and take pictures of them. An activity about discovery, creative thought, and looking at things from a mathematical perspective.
Paper Activities
A collection of activities that involve coloring, building things out of paper, producing complex shapes by folding and cutting, and solving math puzzles.
Celebrate in your classroom
Math games
New! Three games to play with math. We explore several variants of the classical Nim, present Ultimate tic-tac-toe, and solve the general problem of placing chess queens boards of many shapes and sizes.
Proofs without words
A collection of mathematical proofs that can be expressed through pictures. Explore them, discuss how they work, and discover mathematics as a universal language.
Fair division
We explore different mathematical ways of dividing a cake between several people, so they all get a fair share. We also use a similar method to divide chores so nobody feels they got the worst part.
Inheritance division
Heirs want to divide an inheritance consisting of different goods with different value. Is there a way to split them so each heir feels they received an equitable share?
Group screening
Students take the role of researchers trying to find people infected with a virus in a more efficient way. The group screening method presented in this activity dates back to WWII and is used now to test for SARS-CoV-2.
Melting the Ice and Orders of Magnitude
A guided activity on asking big questions about planet Earth and some methods to answer them. Exploring Fermi questions, estimations, orders of magnitude and using data to draft simple models.
Announce your event
Our event map can let the world know of your celebration.
If your event is public we can help local people find it.
You'll be able to submit your event a few months before the next IDM.
Create your own posters and signs
using our templates and logos.
Get ideas to decorate your event venue.
Dive in deep into mathematics
Want to train your math know-how before IDM, explore some new ideas or add an extra bit of spice to your event? Here are some great launching points:
Videos about numbers and mathematical topics by Brady Haran. Some of the leading mathematicians and science communicators explain real problems and research topics in some of the most entertaining videos found on YouTube.
A series of posters in several languages that show, through very relatable examples, the role of mathematics in science, nature, technology and human culture. Produced by the American Mathematical Society.
Short texts on aspects of modern mathematics written by researchers visiting the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach in Germany and edited for ease of understanding.