How Our 1,000-Year-Old Math Curriculum Cheats America’s Kids?
Imagine you had to take an art class in which you were taught how to paint a fence or a wall, but you were never shown the paintings of the…
Article Type: Mathematics
What Does Randomness Look Like?
On 13 June 1944, a week after the allied invasion of Normandy, a loud buzzing sound rattled through the skies of battle-worn London. The source of the sound was a…
The Complex Geometry of Islamic Design
In Islamic culture, geometry is everywhere. You can find it in mosques, madrasas, palaces and private homes. This tradition began in the 8th century CE during the early history of…
How a 19th Century Math Genius Carl Friedrich Gauss Taught Us the Best Way to Hold a Pizza Slice?
We’ve all been there. You pick up a slice of pizza and you’re about to take a bite, but it flops over and dangles limply from your fingers instead. The crust…
How To Easily Remember the Unit Circle
I work in a walk-in tutor lab at my university, and one of the other tutors showed me this a couple of years back and changed my life. First, you make…
How Close Are Computers to Automating Mathematical Reasoning?
Paul Cohen, legendary for his daring methods in set theory, predicted that all of mathematics could be automated, including the writing of proofs.
Living in Alan Turing’s Future
More than a decade has passed since the British government issued an apology to the mathematician Alan Turing. “On behalf of . . . all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work,”…
The Cicada’s Love Affair With Prime Numbers
As far back as the seventeen-hundreds, fur trappers for the Hudson’s Bay Company noted that while in some years they would collect an enormous number of Canadian lynx pelts, in…
Math of the Penguins
Animals have evolved to protect against the cold in myriad ways. Whales insulate with blubber. Bison congregate near geothermal springs. Black bears shelter in caves. And emperor penguins, facing Antarctica’s…
How a Brand of Chalk Achieved Cult Status Among Mathematicians?
Some call it the Rolls Royce of chalk, the Steinway of writing utensils. Some say it’s unbreakable, others say it leaves no dust behind. And it turned the world’s brightest…
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