Mathematics

New work on the problem of “scissors congruence” explains when it’s possible to slice up one shape and reassemble it as another.

Researchers have discovered a surprising mathematical relationship in the brain’s representations of sensory information, with possible applications to AI research.

A major advance toward solving the 60-year-old sunflower conjecture is shedding light on how order begins to appear as random systems grow in size.

Playing with a simple bean machine illustrates how deterministic laws can produce probabilistic, random-seeming behavior.

Two monumental works have led many mathematicians to avoid the equal sign. The process has not always gone smoothly.

Researchers finally seem to have a quantum computer that can outperform a classical computer. But what does that really mean?

Is nature inherently random or is perfect randomness just an illusion based on our ignorance?

The twin primes conjecture is one of the most important and difficult questions in mathematics. Two mathematicians have solved a parallel version of the problem for small number systems.

The way you learned to multiply works, but computers employ a faster algorithm.