Michael Penn

Michael Penn makes maths videos covering a wide range of topics, from theory to application. He teaches maths at university level, and runs a second channel, MathMajor, with full course material.

Most videos are worked problems on a chalkboard. Topics include calculus, differential equations, number theory, complex numbers, proofs and unusual puzzles. He writes everything out step by step, so viewers can pause and follow along. Some videos are aimed at university students, but many are within reach of a confident A level student.

Some highlights include:

An exploration of a number that is almost exactly a whole number, and why this is no coincidence.

A worked solution to the famous goat grazing problem, which asks how long a rope must be for a goat to eat half a circular field.

He looks at a new formula for pi sent in by a viewer and checks how and why it works.

The channel has around 355,000 subscribers.

Engineering degrees are full of calculus and differential equations, and this channel is a good place to practise them. Watching problems solved by hand builds the patience and technique that engineers need. It suits students taking A level Maths or Further Maths who are thinking about engineering, physics or maths at university. It also shows that a hard problem can be broken down into smaller steps that each make sense.