Toy Models and Model Toys: The Mathematics of Fun and the Art of Modelling

This series examines the role of toy models as important conceptual constructs for scientific understanding, beginning each lecture with either a simple physical toy or an elementary natural phenomenon exhibiting behaviour that is surprising or non-intuitive. 

The lectures show how these toy models can often generate complex outcomes. Each lecture broadens the discussion to show how toy models illuminate entire classes of problems, revealing unifying principles and enabling insight across a wide range of applications in the physical, biological and engineering sciences.