Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

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...

Dec 5, 2017

Mathematicians Awarded $3 Million for Cracking Century-Old Problem

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 3:15 a.m. E.T. on Monday, Dec. 11 Two mathematicians have each earned the (massive but countable) sum of $3 million for a proof that could one day help scientists understand extra dimensions. Christopher Hacon, a mathematician at the University of Utah, and James...

Mar 21, 2018

Famous Mathematician Joseph Fourier Would Have Been 250 Today. Here's Why He Matters

March 21 marks the 250th birthday of one of the most influential mathematicians in history. He accompanied Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt, revolutionized science's understanding of heat transfer, developed the mathematical tools used today to create CT and MRI scan images, and discovered the greenhouse effect. His name was...

Mar 21, 2018

Creator of 'Grand Unified Theory of Mathematics' Wins Prestigious Math Prize

A mathematician who developed what some consider the grand unified theory of mathematics has won one of the most prestigious prizes in mathematics. Robert Langlands, an emeritus professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, has won the Abel Prize, a prestigious mathematics prize that honors a lifetime...

Apr 27, 2018

This Biologist Cracked a Problem That's Stumped Mathematicians for 68 Years

An amateur mathematician just partially solved a problem that has vexed mathematicians since 1950. Aubrey de Grey — a biologist better known for trying to radically extend human life and for predicting that the first person to live to be 1,000 years old has already been born — has published...

Aug 2, 2018

This Man Won the Top Prize in Mathematics — Then Someone Immediately Stole It

Yesterday (Aug. 1), University of Cambridge mathematician Caucher Birkar won the Fields Medal — the highest prize in mathematics, awarded every four years to a small group of mathematicians age 40 or younger. The award came with a 14-carat gold medal and 15,000 Canadian dollars (about $11,500). According to the...

Sep 25, 2018

Mathematician Claims He Solved 160-Year-Old Math Problem. Critics Say Probably Not.

An unsolved 160-year-old math problem may finally have a solution — but critics are wary. Michael Atiyah, a prominent mathematician emeritus at the University of Edinburgh, announced yesterday (Sept. 24) at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany that he had come up with a simple proof to solve the Riemann...

Jan 19, 2019

How a German City Developed — And Then Lost — Generations of Math Geniuses

There are two things that connect the names Gauss, Riemann, Hilbert and Noether. One is their outstanding breadth of contributions to the field of mathematics. The other is that each was a professor at the same university in Göttingen, Germany. Although relatively unknown today, Göttingen, a small German university town,...

Mar 22, 2019

Karen Uhlenbeck Just Won One of Math's Most Prestigious Prizes. Here's Why Her Work Is So Important.

U.S. mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck won this year’s Abel Prize, becoming the first woman to take home the prestigious math award, the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters announced March 19. Uhlenbeck, an emeritus professor at the University of Texas at Austin and currently a visiting scholar at Princeton University, won...

Apr 2, 2019

A Mathematician Just Solved a Deceptively Simple Puzzle That Has Boggled Minds for 64 Years

A mathematician in England has cracked a math puzzle that's stumped computers and humans alike for 64 years: How can the number 33 be expressed as the sum of three cubed numbers? While it might seem simple on its face, this question is part of an enduring number-theory conundrum that...

Apr 4, 2019

Computer Software Could Crack Centuries-Old Math Puzzle

In mathematics, no researcher works in true isolation. Even those who work alone use the theorems and methods of their colleagues and predecessors to develop new ideas. But when a known technique is too difficult to use in practice, mathematicians may neglect important — and otherwise solvable — problems. Recently,...

May 28, 2019

Mathematicians Edge Closer to Solving a 'Million Dollar' Math Problem

Did a team of mathematicians just take a big step toward answering a 160-year-old, million-dollar question in mathematics? Maybe. The crew did solve a number of other, smaller questions in a field called number theory. And in doing so, they have reopened an old avenue that might eventually lead to...