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Mathematics

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The Colorful Problem That Has Long Frustrated Mathematicians

March 29, 2023

The four-color problem is simple to explain, but its complex proof continues to be both celebrated and despised.

Q&A

Emmy Murphy Is a Mathematician Who Finds Beauty in Flexibility

March 27, 2023

The prize-winning geometer feels most fulfilled when exploring the fertile ground where constraint meets creation.

The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy

March 24, 2023

Learn why the quadratic formula works and why quadratics are easier to solve than cubics.

Is There Math Beyond the Equal Sign?

March 22, 2023

Can mathematics handle things that are essentially the same without being exactly equal? Category theorist Eugenia Cheng and host Steven Strogatz discuss the power and pleasures of abstraction.

Surprise Computer Science Proof Stuns Mathematicians

March 21, 2023

For decades, mathematicians have been inching forward on a problem about which sets contain evenly spaced patterns of three numbers. Last month, two computer scientists blew past all of those results.

Coloring by Numbers Reveals Arithmetic Patterns in Fractions

March 15, 2023

In a recent paper, two mathematicians showed that a particular pattern is unavoidable when fractions are categorized.

New Proof Distinguishes Mysterious and Powerful ‘Modular Forms’

March 9, 2023

Using “refreshingly old” tools, mathematicians resolved a 50-year-old conjecture about how to categorize important functions called modular forms, with consequences for number theory and theoretical physics.

Q&A

An Applied Mathematician With an Unexpected Toolbox

March 1, 2023

Lek-Heng Lim uses tools from algebra, geometry and topology to answer questions in machine learning.

Quantum Field Theory Pries Open Mathematical Puzzle

February 16, 2023

Mathematicians have struggled to understand the moduli space of graphs. A new paper uses tools from physics to peek inside.

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