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Sphere Packing Solved in Higher Dimensions
The Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska has solved the centuries-old sphere-packing problem in dimensions eight and 24.
Solution: A Hat Trick + 1 of Hat Puzzles
For four game show variations of the hat puzzle, four clever ways to earn a better payoff than you might expect.
Mathematicians Discover Prime Conspiracy
A previously unnoticed property of prime numbers seems to violate a long-standing assumption about how they behave.
A Hat Trick of Hat Puzzles
In three new variations of a famous logic puzzle, what are the best strategies for guessing the color of the hat on your head?
Michael Atiyah’s Imaginative State of Mind
At 86, Britain’s preeminent mathematical matchmaker is still tackling the big questions and dreaming of a union between the quantum and the gravitational forces.
Solution: ‘The Problem With Dancing Shapes’
Assigning elements from a large collection to one of two categories can yield almost “magical” predictions about highly complicated problems without actually solving them.
The Problem With Dancing Shapes
In a geometrically designed social club, how do dancing, triangles and hexagons mix?
Solution: ‘Sleeping Beauty’s Dilemma’
The solution to this month’s puzzle gets to the bottom of the famously ambiguous Sleeping Beauty probability problem.
Sleeping Beauty’s Necker Cube Dilemma
Like a visually ambiguous Necker cube, the famous Sleeping Beauty problem can be perceived in two seemingly valid ways.