The SciencesMay 26, 2016
Modular Arithmetic at the Music Stand
A mathematical life hack for orchestral musicians
Stories by Evelyn Lamb
Evelyn Lamb is a freelance math and science writer based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The SciencesMay 10, 2016
How to Confuse a Traveling Mathematician
An embellished account of a border crossing
The SciencesMay 1, 2016
What the Prime Number Tweetbot Taught Me about Infinite Sums
Sometimes we learn math from lectures and textbooks. Sometimes it's Web comics and Twitter
The SciencesApril 28, 2016
How to Look at Art: A Mathematician's Perspective
To fully appreciate perspective art, mathematician Annalisa Crannell says both the artist and the art viewer need to do some math
The SciencesApril 18, 2016
A Few of My Favorite Spaces: The Wallis Sieve
This strange fractal-like object lets you "squeeze π" out of a square
The SciencesApril 12, 2016
The Cubic Equation as Poetry
The solution to the cubic equation, in terza rima.
The SciencesApril 1, 2016
A Few of My Favorite Spaces: Space-Filling Curves
Space-filling curves, puzzling maps between dimensions, have surprising real-world applications.
The SciencesMarch 29, 2016
Andrew Hacker and the Case of the Missing Trigonometry Question
Andrew Hacker makes a lot of mistakes in his most recent book. Some of them are interesting.
The SciencesMarch 15, 2016
2 Plausible Things That Cannot Both Be True
Your daily dose of number theory weirdness
The SciencesMarch 14, 2016
Peculiar Pattern Found in "Random" Prime Numbers
Last digits of nearby primes have "anti-sameness" bias
The SciencesMarch 8, 2016
How to Sew Like a Mathematician
An investigation of toroidal bias tape
The SciencesFebruary 29, 2016
Math Photo: Projection
A picture is worth a thousand equations.
The SciencesFebruary 22, 2016
Could You Tune Every Key on a Piano to a Middle C?
Android recently released an ad featuring a "monotuned" piano. Do not try this at home.
The SciencesFebruary 15, 2016
Black Mathematical Excellence: A Q&A with Erica Walker
Erica Walker explores the diversity of Black mathematical experience in her book Beyond Banneker.
The SciencesFebruary 12, 2016
A Few of My Favorite Spaces: The Long Line
"My love for you is like the long line - similar to real love in most respects, just longer." Meet the cheesy Valentine's Day card of topological spaces.
The SciencesFebruary 1, 2016
A Few of My Favorite Spaces: The Möbius Strip
Meet the Möbius band, the topological space with the most poignant storytelling potential.
The SciencesJanuary 28, 2016
An Impractical, Ahistorical, Mathematically Elegant Way to Figure out Earth Is a Sphere
All it takes is several friends and a lot of rope
The SciencesJanuary 22, 2016
PSA: Do Not Use the New Prime Number for RSA Encryption
You might be tempted to use that shiny new prime number for RSA encryption. Don't do it.
The SciencesJanuary 21, 2016
Thinking about How and Why We Prove
Stacking oranges leads to computer-assisted mathematics. But does it feel like mathematics?
The SciencesDecember 31, 2015
What I Wrote this Year
Another year, another year in review.
The SciencesDecember 30, 2015
A Few of My Favorite Spaces: The Three-Torus
Living in a three-dimensional torus would be a narcissist's dream.
The SciencesDecember 29, 2015
Contrasts in Number Theory
Mathematicians of the world, unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains!
The SciencesDecember 16, 2015
Encountering Combinatorics in the Wild
What does a mathematician think about when she goes for a walk? Optimizing her route, of course!
The SciencesDecember 5, 2015
The Scenic Route to Infinity
"To infinity...very slowly."