Mathematics

People in prisons and jails have contributed to some of the greatest ideas in mathematics

Figure out how to split the square in this math puzzle

Find out how this simple algorithm from the 1960s catches your typos

An artificial intelligence breakthrough uses reinforcement learning to tackle the Andrews-Curtis conjecture, solving long-standing counterexamples and hinting at tools for forecasting stock crashes, diseases and climate disasters

Though the Fibonacci sequence shows up everywhere in nature, these young mathematicians were surprised to find it in the answer to a variation of the pick-up sticks problem⁠—a nearly two-century-old form of puzzle

AI models supposedly did well on International Math Olympiad problems, but how they got their answers reminds us why we still need people doing math

When she was just 17 years old, Hannah Cairo disproved the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture, breaking a four-decade-old mathematical assumption

Can “finitism” possibly describe the real world?

How complex can a simple game be? Tetris pushes even supercomputers to their limits and amazes mathematicians

Here’s how the new tetrahedron-based design for the “Trionda” soccer ball may affect next year’s big game

In only its second year, the International Logic Olympiad is already booming as logic becomes more and more crucial in our ever changing world

The Langlands program has inspired and befuddled mathematicians for more than 50 years. A major advance has now opened up new worlds for them to explore