Talking Maths in… Coventry Transport Museum

This is a guest post from museum educator and mathematician Tom Briggs, about his session at last August’s Talking Maths in Public conference. 2025’s Talking Maths in Public (TMiP) conference took place on the Warwick University campus, but the Saturday morning networking and wind-down venue was the fabulous Coventry Transport Museum. A few weeks earlier I’d been asked by the TMiP organising committee if I’d like to offer something related to my work with museums, and I think it’s about time I wrote something about what happened. The idea was simple: after introducing myself and explaining why I care about seeing more maths in museums, I set a plucky band of maths communicators a challenge: explore the Coventry Transport Museum… but keep your maths hat on. I asked them to view the objects and exhibitions that they encountered through a mathematical lens, considering the questions: What mathematical topics call out to you? How might you convince someone less interested in maths than…