The SciencesApril 27, 2016
A Math Genius Like No Other Comes to the Big Screen
The Man Who Knew Infinity brings the self-taught Indian wunderkind Srinivasa Ramanujan vividly to life
Stories by Colm Mulcahy
Colm Mulcahy is professor of mathematics at Spelman College, Atlanta, GA. His puzzles have appeared in the New York Times and Huffington Post. His latest book is Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects (AK Peters/CRC Press, August 2013)--please see http://cardcolm.org. He helped to spearhead Mathematics Awareness Month 2014. He tweets at @CardColm and encourages recreational mathematics fans to follow @WWMGT (What Would Martin Gardner Tweet?) and @MGardner100th. His articles for Scientific American can be found here.
The SciencesNovember 1, 2015
The Bicentennial of George Boole, the Man Who Laid the Foundations of the Digital Age
Monday, November 2, marks the 200-year anniversary of the birth of the man who put True/False, 0/1, and AND/OR and NOT on the map
The SciencesOctober 28, 2015
Martin Gardner at 101 ("It's as not-so-easy as 3, 4, 5")
On his 101st birthday, Martin Gardner's legacy continues to inspire new breakthroughs
The SciencesJuly 31, 2015
How to Get to the Fourth Dimension
A new book offers mathematical puzzles, such as fitting a coin through a hole that seems too small to accommodate it
April 1, 2015
John Conway Reminiscences about Dr. Matrix and Bourbaki
Last week, life took me through Princeton, and I seized the opportunity to drop in to see resident English mathematician John Horton Conway.
The SciencesMarch 14, 2015
How Many Digits of Pi Do You Really Need to Know? Find Out with This Bar Bet
A physicist or engineer who uses (pi) in numerical calculations may need to have access to 5 or 15 decimal place approximations to this special number, but most of us—mathematicians included—don't need to know more (decimal-wise) than the fact that it's roughly 3.14.
The SciencesOctober 21, 2014
The Top 10 Martin Gardner Scientific American Articles
The “Mathematical Games” column in Scientific American that began in January 1957 is a legend in publishing, even though it’s been almost 30 years since the last one appeared.
The SciencesOctober 1, 2014
Math Games of Martin Gardner Still Spur Innovation
In what would be his centennial year, Martin Gardner, the longtime author of Scientific American's celebrated Mathematical Games column, continues to inspire mathematicians and puzzle lovers
The SciencesOctober 1, 2014
How Well Do You Know Martin Gardner? [Quiz]
Do you think of yourself as a true fan of Martin Gardner’s? Test your knowledge of him here
April 16, 2014
A Month of Math, Magic and Mystery
Haven't got the Math Awareness Month bug yet? Here are three teasers to get you started: 1. What read the same right side up and upside down, and combine mathematics, art, and language?
Mind & BrainOctober 29, 2013
Celebrations of Mind Honor Math’s Best Friend, Martin Gardner
Every fall provides a special excuse for all thinking people to celebrate recreational math, magic and rationality, some of the things that were dear to America’s greatest man of letters and numbers, former Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner (1914 – 2010), via Celebration of Mind events.