David S. Richeson

Contributing Columnist

Latest Articles

Unfolding the Mysteries of Polygonal Billiards

February 15, 2024

The surprisingly subtle geometry of a familiar game shows how quickly math gets complicated.

A Brief History of Tricky Mathematical Tiling

October 30, 2023

The discovery earlier this year of the “hat” tile marked the culmination of hundreds of years of work into tiles and their symmetries.

How Math Achieved Transcendence

June 27, 2023

Transcendental numbers include famous examples like e and π, but it took mathematicians centuries to understand them.

The Colorful Problem That Has Long Frustrated Mathematicians

March 29, 2023

The four-color problem is simple to explain, but its complex proof continues to be both celebrated and despised.

Why Mathematicians Study Knots

October 31, 2022

Far from being an abstract mathematical curiosity, knot theory has driven many findings in math and beyond.

The Sordid Past of the Cubic Formula

June 30, 2022

The quest to solve cubic equations led to duels, betrayals — and modern mathematics.

How We Can Make Sense of Chaos

March 2, 2022

Dynamical systems can be chaotic and impossible to predict, but mathematicians have discovered tools to help understand them.

The Journey to Define Dimension

September 13, 2021

The concept of dimension seems simple enough, but mathematicians struggled for centuries to precisely define and understand it.

Topology 101: The Hole Truth

January 26, 2021

The relationships among the properties of flexible shapes have fascinated mathematicians for centuries.

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