You are looking for
Advanced search
Math That Lets You Think Locally but Act Globally
Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot about a system’s global structure. In math, as in life, small choices can...
Behold Modular Forms, the ‘Fifth Fundamental Operation’ of Math
Modular forms are one of the most beautiful and mysterious objects in mathematics. What are they? “There are five fundamental operations in mathematics,” the German mathematician Martin Eichler supposedly said....
A Triplet Tree Forms One of the Most Beautiful Structures in Math
...graph theory. “It’s not just an equation, it’s a kind of method,” said Oleg Karpenkov, a mathematician at the University of Liverpool. “These numbers are central, deep inside mathematics …...
If the Universe Is a Hologram, This Long-Forgotten Math Could Decode It
...the Platonic ideal of a genius. Conversant in ancient Greek by age 6, the Hungarian made significant mathematical advances in his teens. Then, as an adult, he invented game theory...
Epic Effort to Ground Physics in Math Opens Up the Secrets of Time
By mathematically proving how individual molecules create the complex motion of fluids, three mathematicians have illuminated why time can’t flow in reverse. At the turn of the 20th century, the...
Busy Beaver Hunters Reach Numbers That Overwhelm Ordinary Math
The quest to find the longest-running simple computer program has identified a new champion. It’s physically impossible to write out the numbers involved using standard mathematical notation. Imagine that someone...
The Math That Promises to Make the World Brighter
...(LEDs are already efficient, but they could be a lot more so). My latest story, “Mathematicians Tame Rogue Waves, Lighting Up Future of LEDs,” is about a mathematical discovery that...
New Earthquake Math Predicts How Destructive They’ll Be
The “pinball” model of a slipping fault line borrows from the mathematics of avalanches. When a fault slips, it unleashes a torrent of seismic waves, not all of them alike....
Math of the Penguins
Emperor penguins display rigorously geometric spacing and mathematical efficiency when they huddle together for warmth, which may reveal secrets to their overall health. Animals have evolved to protect against the...