What Is Benford’s Law? Why This Unexpected Pattern of Numbers Is Everywhere
A curious mathematical phenomenon called Benford’s law governs the numbers all around us
A curious mathematical phenomenon called Benford’s law governs the numbers all around us
A thought experiment that’s dividing mathematicians can help illuminate how belief shapes rational decisions
Information theory can help people mathematically calculate the best starting guess for a popular online game
At an American Mathematical Society meeting, high school students presented a proof of the Pythagorean theorem that used trigonometry—an approach that some once considered impossible...
A new shape called an einstein has taken the math world by storm. The craggy, hat-shaped tile can cover an infinite plane with patterns that never repeat.
Math is called the “universal language,” but a unique dialect is being reborn
Mathematician Abba Gumel uses calculations and models to prepare for future disease outbreaks
Argentine mathematician Luis Caffarelli has won the 2023 Abel Prize for making natural phenomena more understandable and eliminating dreaded “infinities” from a calculation
Luis Caffarelli’s work includes equations underpinning physical phenomena, such as melting ice and flowing liquids
Hairiness is the perfect way to demonstrate the math underlying the “pigeonhole principle,” first conceived in 1622
Every year on Pi Day, we have a reason to celebrate one of math’s most famous symbols. But this year we speak to someone who has captured it in song.
Plato was right: newborns do math
That prime numbers and powers of 2 fascinate many people comes as no surprise. In fact, all numbers split into two camps: interesting and boring
Math made a splash this year. Here’s a look at the fascinating discoveries, mind-bending quests and important events in mathematics in 2022
Prolific generation of data drove the need for prefixes that denote 1027 and 1030
Mathematician Melanie Matchett Wood seeks creative ways of solving open math problems
After shocking the mathematics community with a major result in 2013, Yitang Zhang now says he has solved an analogue of the celebrated Riemann hypothesis
Some voting districts are tilted intentionally toward one party or another—a factor in the midterms. Geometry plays a critical role in gerrymandering
Mathematician Frank Ramsey showed how to discover coherent patterns among a multitude of number groupings
Math helps to randomly select the fairest citizens’ assemblies since antiquity
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