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Counting Fish

I need a figure for the fish population in a lake, how does it help to catch and mark 40 fish ?

Snow and Cholera

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

The circumstances surrounding the story of John Snow and the Broad Street pump are explained on this website supported by the Science Museum. Making the Modern World

Putting 'Snow Broad Street Pump ' into Google will bring up even more information.


' Epidemics are among the most dramatic events that humans experience. In historical times, doctors have struggled to explain why they start and end. These days, we understand that diseases like influenza are caused by small infectious particles called viruses which spread from person to person. But can we say when an epidemic can start and explain why they end ? '

Julia Gog is involved in developing mathematical models of disease at the University of Cambridge. If you follow this link to the Motivate website you can see her work with Stage 4 students : SimFlu: Build Your Own Epidemic


Also on the NRICH site is this problem and interactivity Epidemic Modelling


Epidemiology is the study of the spread of disease . This article (which does include some A-Level mathematics) on the Plus website tells you more : The mathematics of diseases

And this article gives more background on Understanding Hypotheses .


The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice. More information on many of our other activities can be found here.
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