Oxford’s Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science returns to the festival with his gleeful exploration of the games we love, spanning millennia and continents.

Can PI help you win rock, paper, scissors? How did Mozart use maths to create music? And which is really the best property to own in Monopoly?

These questions and many more are answered in Around the World in 80 Games by Oxford’s Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science Marcus du Sautoy. The Horizon broadcaster and The Creativity Code author returns to the festival with his gleeful exploration – spanning millennia and continents – of how the games we love have forever been intertwined with mathematics, and how both are integral to human psychology and culture.

Buy a copy of Around the World in 80 Games by Marcus du Sautoy.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

About the Speaker:

Marcus du Sautoy is a fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and has been named by The Independent on Sunday as one of Britain leading scientists. In 2001 he won the Berwick Prize of The London Mathematical Society and in 2006 gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. His book The Music of the Primes was published in 2003 to widespread acclaim. In October 2008 he was appointed to Oxford University’s prestigious professorship as the Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science, a post previously held by Richard Dawkins.