
A Cuddly, Crocheted Klein Quartic Curve
Mathematical crochet shines in Daina Taimina's model of a mathematical surface
Evelyn Lamb is a freelance math and science writer based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A Cuddly, Crocheted Klein Quartic Curve
Mathematical crochet shines in Daina Taimina's model of a mathematical surface

How the Simpsons (And You) Can Multiply by Seven Using Your Fingers
When I tutored elementary school math, one of my favorite things to show the kids was how to multiply by 9 using their fingers. (I apologize, but this trick assumes that you have five fingers on each hand.

When Numbers Are Used for a Witch Hunt
I recently finished the excellent book Math on Trial by Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez. In it, the authors collect examples where statistical errors have possibly altered the outcome of trials.

Zombie Fever: A Mathematician Studies a Pop Culture Epidemic
Zombies. They’re everywhere. My dentist and his assistant spent my last visit and chatting about The Walking Dead while drilling into my head, and it seems like every reasonably large town hosts a zombie run.

Carnival of Mathematics #103
Welcome to the 103rd Carnival of Mathematics! The number 103 is prime, and it’s the “older” twin of a pair of twin primes as well—or is it the “younger” twin because it comes later?

Mathematics, Live: A Conversation with Victoria Booth and Trachette Jackson
This is the second in a series of interviews I have been doing for the Association for Women in Mathematics. (You can read my first interview, with dynamicists Laura DeMarco and Amie Wilkinson, here.) In my interviews, I’m “listening in” on a conversation between two women mathematicians.

Can a Closed Set Be Open? Can an Open Set Be Closed? When Math and Language Collide
The dissonance between the mathematical and plain English meanings of terms can prove challenging for students

Step Right Up! It's the Carnival of Mathematics!
The Carnival of Mathematics is a monthly blogging round-up of fun math-related blog posts organized by the friendly folks of the Aperiodical.

10 Secret Trig Functions Your Math Teachers Never Taught You
Haversine? Exsecant? An introduction to obsolete trig functions and why we don't use them anymore

Mathematics+Motherhood: An Interview with Constance Leidy
This is a guest post from Lillian Pierce, who has been doing an interview series for the Association for Women in Mathematics. Her series has focused on women who are balancing motherhood with their mathematical careers.

The Top n Math Videos Involving Food
It’s food week here on the Scientific American blog network. Food is a really important part of our health, and there’s a lot to learn about the science of food: taste, health, agriculture, how we eat.

Blackboards Make You Stupid (Or Is It Just Me?)
I just finished my first week teaching after a few years out of the classroom. Whenever I teach, I’m struck by how much detail I need to put in my notes to make sure I don’t say something absolutely ridiculous when I’m in front of the class.

The Most Breathtaking Video of the Weather You’ll Watch This Week
Last Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a video of the past 10 years of weather in the Americas. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES-12, which had monitored the weather in North and South America since April 2003, was retired on August 16.

Sex Makes You Rich? Why We Keep Saying “Correlation Is Not Causation” Even Though It’s Annoying
On Saturday, my Twitter feed alerted me to a totally non-sensationalistic Gawker article called More Buck For Your Bang: People Who Have More Sex Make The Most Money.

What Is the Funniest Number?
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.

How Much Pi Do You Need?

Here a Henge, There a Henge: Astronomy Fun on a Street Near You

A Twelve-Tone Trip Down Memory Lane, Courtesy of Vi Hart

Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth

Introducing the Blog on Math Blogs

Mathematicians Predict What's in Your Wallet

Mathematics, Live: A Conversation with Laura DeMarco and Amie Wilkinson

My Head Is Not a Hairy Ball

Strumming the Lute of Pythagoras