Mathematics

Quanta’s new puzzle column asks you to believe the seemingly impossible — that you can win at a number guessing game with absolutely no information.

Solve this variation of Thomas Kirkman’s famous 1850 puzzle by arranging girls in walking groups. And think fast — the clock is ticking.

A 150-year-old conundrum about how to group people has been solved, but many puzzles remain.

The Fields medalist Vladimir Voevodsky has died at 51. This 2015 article describes his computer-aided quest to eliminate human error and rewrite the century-old rules underlying all of mathematics.

A mathematician who has analyzed card shuffling for decades is tackling one final nemesis: “smooshing.”

A collaboration between mechanical engineers and mathematicians has revealed universal rules for how wrinkles form.

Two years ago, Yitang Zhang was virtually unknown. Now his surprise solution to a major problem in number theory has catapulted him to mathematical stardom. Where does he go from here?

Researchers are on the trail of a mysterious connection between number theory, algebra and string theory.

Nature has revealed peculiar mathematical objects that connect order and chaos.