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Mathematics

Latest Articles

A GIF showing increasingly more twists being added to the curves on a sphere.
geometry

Mathematicians Identify Threshold at Which Shapes Give Way

By Mordechai Rorvig
June 3, 2021
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A new proof establishes the boundary at which a shape becomes so corrugated, it can be crushed.

Insights puzzle

How a Simple Arithmetic Puzzle Can Guide Discovery

By Pradeep Mutalik
May 28, 2021
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Playing with numbers can lead to deep mathematical and scientific insights.

Color photo of Jordan Ellenberg sitting with a laptop by a lake at sunset
Q&A

A Number Theorist Who Connects Math to Other Creative Pursuits

By Steve Nadis
May 27, 2021
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Jordan Ellenberg enjoys studying — and writing about — the mathematics underlying everyday phenomena.

Illustration of figures building a large structure, with a new material being used for the latest additions
polynomials

Mathematicians Find Long-Sought Building Blocks for Special Polynomials

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
May 25, 2021
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Hilbert’s 12th problem asked for novel analogues of the roots of unity, the building blocks for certain number systems. Now, over 100 years later, two mathematicians have produced them.

Illustration showing a graph against a purple background, with certain vertices and edges highlighted in orange.
combinatorics

Mathematicians Answer Old Question About Odd Graphs

By Kevin Hartnett
May 19, 2021
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A pair of mathematicians solved a legendary question about the proportion of vertices in a graph with an odd number of connections.

A looping image of two black holes orbiting one another, with the second one smaller than the first.
mathematical physics

New Black Hole Math Closes Cosmic Blind Spot

By Steve Nadis
May 13, 2021
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A mathematical shortcut for analyzing black hole collisions works even in cases where it shouldn’t. As astronomers use it to search for new classes of hidden black holes, others wonder: Why?

topology

How Mathematicians Use Homology to Make Sense of Topology

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
May 11, 2021
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Originally devised as a rigorous means of counting holes, homology provides a scaffolding for mathematical ideas, allowing for a new way to analyze the shapes within data.

Quantized Academy

How to Solve Equations That Are Stubborn as a Goat

By Patrick Honner
May 6, 2021
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Math teachers have stymied students for hundreds of years by sticking goats in strangely shaped fields. Learn why one grazing goat problem has stumped mathematicians for more than a century.

graph theory

New Proof Reveals That Graphs With No Pentagons Are Fundamentally Different

By Steve Nadis
April 26, 2021
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Researchers have proved a special case of the Erdős-Hajnal conjecture, which shows what happens in graphs that exclude anything resembling a pentagon.


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