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