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The Argument Against Quantum Computers
The mathematician Gil Kalai believes that quantum computers can’t possibly work, even in principle.
How Math (and Vaccines) Keep You Safe From the Flu
Simple math shows how widespread vaccination can disrupt the exponential spread of disease and prevent epidemics.
Solution: ‘Triangulation and Motion Sickness’
A method for estimating distances in sailing and astrophysics helps explain why riding on buses and boats can make us nauseous.
What Makes the Hardest Equations in Physics So Difficult?
The Navier-Stokes equations describe simple, everyday phenomena, like water flowing from a garden hose, yet they provide a million-dollar mathematical challenge.
In Praise of Simple Problems
The mathematician Richard Schwartz finds the hidden depth lurking in simple mathematical puzzles.
How Triangulation Leads to Knowledge
What does measuring distances in sailing and astrophysics have to with motion sickness?
Mathematicians Find Wrinkle in Famed Fluid Equations
Two mathematicians prove that under certain extreme conditions, the Navier-Stokes equations output nonsense.
A Mathematician Who Decodes the Patterns Stamped Out by Life
Corina Tarnita deciphers bizarre patterns in the soil created by competing life-forms.
The (Math) Problem With Pentagons
Triangles fit effortlessly together, as do squares. When it comes to pentagons, what gives?