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‘Monumental’ Math Proof Solves Triple Bubble Problem and More
...three volumes, the mathematician Frank Morgan of Williams College speculated in 2007, “could well take another hundred years.” Now, mathematicians have been spared that long wait — and have gotten...
2022’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math
In 2022, mathematicians solved a centuries-old geometry question, proved the best way to minimize the surface area of clusters of up to five bubbles and proved a sweeping statement about...
Simpler Math Predicts How Close Ecosystems Are to Collapse
...more frequent and severe over larger areas. The effects of that transition could ripple out globally to other ecosystems. A recent breakthrough in the mathematical modeling of ecosystems could make...
How a Computer Broke a 50-Year Math Record
...AlphaTensor quickly rediscovered — and surpassed, for some cases — the reigning algorithm discovered by German mathematician Volker Strassen in 1969. Christopher Webb Young/Quanta Magazine; Emily Zhang for Quanta Magazine...
How Math Achieved Transcendence
Transcendental numbers include famous examples like e and π, but it took mathematicians centuries to understand them. In 1886 the mathematician Leopold Kronecker famously said, “God Himself made the whole...
Math’s Famous Map Problem: The Four-Color Theorem
David Richeson discusses the history and significance of the four color theorem. Joy Ng for Quanta Magazine...
Two Students Unravel a Widely Believed Math Conjecture
...in the group of the mathematician Katherine Stange. Stange is a number theorist who describes herself as a mathematical “frog” — someone who delves deep into one problem’s intricacies before...
Math Proof Draws New Boundaries Around Black Hole Formation
For a half century, mathematicians have tried to define the exact circumstances under which a black hole is destined to exist. A new proof shows how a cube can help...
A Century Later, New Math Smooths Out General Relativity
...than a century after Einstein devised his theory. Dan Lee, a mathematician at Queens College who studies the mathematics of general relativity but was not involved in this research, said...