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Father-Son Team Solves Geometry Problem With Infinite Folds
...of Technology. Erik Demaine learned basic math and the visual arts from his father, but eventually taught Martin advanced math and computer science. “Now we’re both artists and both mathematicians/computer...
New Proof Illuminates the Hidden Structure of Common Equations
...help solve lots of other equations in our mathematical system, like x2 – 20 = 0. (Note that here, our mathematical system is limited to polynomials and rational numbers.) But...
How Complex Is a Knot? New Proof Reveals Ranking System That Works.
“Ribbon concordance” will let mathematicians compare knots by linking them across four-dimensional space. Back in 1981, Cameron Gordon introduced a new way to relate two knots — mathematical constructs modeled...
Surfaces Beyond Imagination Are Discovered After Decades-Long Search
Unimaginable Surfaces Discovered After Decades-Long Search Using ideas borrowed from graph theory, two mathematicians have shown that extremely complex surfaces are easy to traverse. Last July, two mathematicians from Durham...
How to Weigh Truth With a Balance Scale
How to Weigh Truth With a Balance Scale and Math In recreational mathematics, the balance scale is an endless source of puzzles that require precise and elaborate logic and teach...
What Is Quantum Field Theory and Why Is It Incomplete?
...our pure mathematician friends, because our pure mathematician friends are smart people, and we think that we have this mathematical theory. But they don’t understand what we’re talking about. And...
How Big Is Infinity?
...this mysterious, complicated and important concept. Some of those children grow up to be mathematicians fascinated with infinity, and some of those mathematicians are discovering new and surprising things about...
From Systems in Motion, Infinite Patterns Appear
Mathematicians are finding inevitable structures in sufficiently large sets of integers. In December 1977, a revolutionary paper quietly appeared in the Journal d’Analyse Mathématique, a specialty mathematics journal. The author,...
The Joy of Asking About Infinity, Jellyfish and the End of the Universe
...mathematician Eugenia Cheng went on a tangent in her episode on category theory. To illustrate how it can apply broadly as a way of thinking beyond mathematics and physics, she...