Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 14, 2015

Photos: Pi Day Celebrations at 2015 SXSW Festival

Math enthusiasts celebrate Pi Day every year on March 14, to honor the mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. This year's event, however, happens just once in a century. Today, March 14, 2015, at 9:26 a.m. and 53 seconds, the date and time...

Mar 25, 2015

What Is Algebra?

Algebra is a branch of mathematics dealing with symbols and the rules for manipulating those symbols. In elementary algebra, those symbols (today written as Latin and Greek letters) represent quantities without fixed values, known as variables. Just as sentences describe relationships between specific words, in algebra, equations describe relationships between...

Apr 7, 2015

What Are Quadratic Equations?

In mathematics, a quadratic is a type of problem that deals with a variable multiplied by itself — an operation known as squaring. This language derives from the area of a square being its side length multiplied by itself. The word quadratic comes from quadratum, the Latin word for square....

Apr 16, 2015

Where's the Proof in Science? There Is None

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH: What do we actually mean by research and how does it help inform our understanding of things? Those people looking for proof to come from any research...

May 7, 2015

What Is Calculus?

Calculus is a branch of mathematics that explores variables and how they change by looking at them in infinitely small pieces called infinitesimals. Calculus, as it is practiced today, was invented in the 17th century by British scientist Isaac Newton (1642 to 1726) and German scientist Gottfried Leibnitz (1646 to...

May 21, 2015

What Are Logarithms?

A logarithm is a mathematical operation that determines how many times a certain number, called the base, is multiplied by itself to reach another number. Because logarithms relate geometric progressions to arithmetic progressions, examples are found throughout nature and art, such as the spacing of guitar frets, mineral hardness, and...

May 30, 2015

What Is Trigonometry?

Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between the sides and angles of triangles. Trigonometry is found all throughout geometry, as every straight-sided shape may be broken into as a collection of triangles. Further still, trigonometry has astoundingly intricate relationships to other branches of mathematics, in particular complex...

Jun 4, 2015

What Is Symmetry?

In geometry, an object exhibits symmetry if it looks the same after a transformation, such as reflection or rotation. Symmetry is the underlying mathematical principle behind all patterns and is important in art (used in architecture, pottery, quilting and rug making), mathematics (relating to geometry, group theory and linear algebra),...

Jun 17, 2015

Properties of Pascal’s Triangle

Pascal’s triangle is a never-ending equilateral triangle of numbers that follow a rule of adding the two numbers above to get the number below. Two of the sides are “all 1's” and because the triangle is infinite, there is no “bottom side.” It is named for Blaise Pascal, a 17th-century...

Jun 22, 2015

What Is Topology?

Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes mathematical spaces, in particular the properties that stem from a space’s shape. Many of the shapes topologists deal with are incredibly strange, so much so that practically all everyday objects such as bowls and pets and trees make up a small minority....

Jul 1, 2015

Euler’s Identity: 'The Most Beautiful Equation'

Euler’s identity is an equality found in mathematics that has been compared to a Shakespearean sonnet and described as the most beautiful equation. It is a special case of a foundational equation in complex arithmetic called Euler’s Formula, which the late great physicist Richard Feynman called in his lectures our...

Mar 14, 2016

Irrational Partying: Happy Pi Day!

3.141592 … wait, what comes next? Doesn't matter — for the purposes of today's date, the first three digits of pi are the important ones. Today, 3/14, is Pi Day, the math nerd's holiday celebrating the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Pi, also written as the Greek...

Jun 28, 2016

Tau Day: Should Pi Be Downgraded?

June 28. National Paul Bunyan Day, National Insurance Awareness Day, National … Tau Day? Today (June 28) is the unofficial holiday Tau Day, meant to celebrate the number tau, that works out to approximately 6.28, or the ratio of a circle's circumference to its radius. While pi may be the...

Jun 1, 2017

The 11 most beautiful mathematical equations

(Image credit: Shutterstock/R.T. Wohlstadter)Mathematical equations aren't just useful — many are quite beautiful. And many scientists admit they are often fond of particular formulas not just for their function, but for their form, and the simple, poetic truths they contain. While certain famous equations, such as Albert Einstein's E =...

Sep 18, 2017

Who Invented Zero?

Though people have always understood the concept of nothing or having nothing, the concept of zero is relatively new; it fully developed in India around the fifth century A.D., perhaps a couple of centuries earlier. Before then, mathematicians struggled to perform the simplest arithmetic calculations. Today, zero — both as...