Spotting the pattern

in this talk

i want to introduce you to a whole new

world of patterns

the one thing my four hobbies all have

in common

is that they are all about patterns i

want to tell you about the patterns in

the structure and the way you solve a

rubik’s cube the patterns when you

play read and write music the patterns

when you program or computer code

and the patterns in the tactics and

strategy of chess

firstly let me tell you about the

rubik’s cube

in 1974 a man called erna rubick

constructed the first rubik’s cube

at the time it was called the magic cube

it was used to model 3d movement to his

students

my mum bought it for me in a bookstore

when i was 8 years old

this is the first time i solved it at

first glance

it might seem really complicated like

you have to get 54 separate squares in

the right place

but if you take a look more closely

you’ll notice that that is not what it

is at all

when deconstructed you’ll notice that

the cube has eight corner pieces

12 edge pieces and one core piece

connected to six centerpieces

the way you solve it is by using

algorithms

these are sequences of turns that result

in a change in the cube

and these changes eventually result in a

solved cube

and it looks something like this

now let’s move on to my violin

music first became popular over 40 000

years ago and the first violin was

constructed in the 1500s

i started playing when i was 6 years old

and i love

reading writing and playing music

let me tell you about the patterns in

music there are several notes

such as the semibreve which is four

beats long

the minim which is two beats long the

crotchet

which is one beat long and the quaver

which is half a bit long

there are also many many performance

directions such as

fortissimo which means very loud piano

which means softly and deltamento which

means sweetly

if you can understand all of these

patterns then you can compose music

and if you can understand this music you

can play it

and it sounds something like this

[Music]

uh

let me now tell you about the patterns

in machines more specifically

computers the first programmer was a

woman called ada loveless

she was friends with charles babbage who

invented the first programmable computer

they were both mathematicians that lived

in london in the 1800s

over the course of time several other

people have invented new programming

languages

such as c plus plus java and python

programming is responsible for games

like fortnite in minecraft

and apps like microsoft teams

here is some simple code i have written

that turns into a

2d window

let me now tell you about the patterns

in chess

chess is a really old game that

originated in india

it was first used to show the queen by

her son the prince

how her husband the king died in battle

it is now played by millions of people

across the globe

and the best player is magnus carlsen

who once beat three people

whilst he was blindfolded in under nine

minutes

there are six chess pieces the pawn the

rook

the knight the bishop the queen and the

king

the queen can move in straight lines but

it can’t jump over pieces

the knight can move in l-shapes and it

can jump over pieces

and the bishop can move along its

diagonals but it can’t jump over pieces

there are sequences of moves that happen

at the beginning of the games

these are called openings there are

openings such as

the king’s indian defense the sicilian

defense

and the rory lopez gambits also happen

at the beginning of the games

and there are gambits with names like

the elephant gambit the queen’s gambit

and the king’s gambit if you can

understand all of these patterns

and you’re much more likely to win a

game

in conclusion if you stop and look

around

you you’ll notice that patterns are

everywhere in

everything you do and in everything you

see

and if you can understand these patterns

the world becomes a really fun and

interesting place to live in

it becomes a whole new world a whole new

world of patterns