Elinor is a PhD student at the Open University studying the history of maths. She loves maths, history and most things in between!
More from Chalkdust

Review of “Getting Triggy with it”
Find out what we thought of Matt Parker's 2025 Edinburgh Fringe show
In conversation with Alison Etheridge
Elinor Flavell talks to the recently appointed dame about life, mathematics and more.
The hidden harmonies of Hamming distance
Chris Boucher explores the secrets and symmetries behind a measure of the distance between binary strings
Surname extinction
Why do surnames die out? We take a look at the Galton-Watson process for modelling the extinction of surnames to answer the question: 'When will we all be Smiths?'
Chalkdust Issue 05 coming 7 March
Free launch party, 7.15pm. Come along! Free copies of Chalkdust, free pizza, and buy your own Chalkdust T-shirt.
Can you solve these puzzles?
While we work on issue 2
