“What if mathematicians were asked to defuse bombs?”
In 1998, a few dozen computer scientists and mathematicians gathered at a picturesque seaside resort on the Tuscan island of…
Category: Math stories
Stories about math and mathematicians.
How math makes movies like Doctor Strange so otherworldly
For wild chase scenes, it’s hard to beat Doctor Strange. In this 2016 film, the fictional doctor-turned-sorcerer has to stop villains who want…
Scientists find the secret to colossal bubbles
Justin Burton’s fascination with soap bubbles began in Barcelona, Spain, six summers ago. “It was hot and humid, and there…
Unraveling the Mathematics of Smell
The human nose finds it simple to distinguish the aroma of fresh coffee from the stink of rotten eggs, but…
Can the principles of topology help improve the world’s slums?
According to the United Nations (UN), nearly 1 billion of the 8 billion people in the world live in slums…
Prizes, Thievery and Higher-Dimensional Doughnuts
And how mathematical collaborations yield breakthroughs. The biggest math heist in years happened the morning of Aug. 1 in a…
Smoots and garns
How much beauty does it take to launch a ship? Howmuch does a male physicist’s beard grow in a second?And…
Math tools send legislators back to the drawing board
On January 9, 2018, a trio of federal judges made history when they ruled that the boundaries of North Carolina’s…
Math Art: Truth, Beauty, and Equations
I'm proud to announce that my book Math Art: Truth, Beauty, and Equations, will be published in April 2019 by Sterling. A…
Researchers find history in the diagrams of Euclid’s Elements
The fourth book of Euclid’s Elements, a 2,300-year-old geometry text, includes directions for constructing a 15-sided polygon inside a circle. The first…