© 1997-2009, Millennium Mathematics Project, University
of Cambridge.
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Permission is granted to print and copy this page on paper for non-commercial use. For other uses, including electronic redistribution, please contact us.
Seven things everyone wants to know about the universe
Careers with maths
The visual effects in Harry Potter and Sweeney Todd
A favourite from the archive...
...about what makes life interesting and why old-fashioned maths is what you need for physics.
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A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T V W
- A differential story
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ABEL PRIZE ] [ DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ] - Abel to iPod
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ABEL PRIZE ] [ DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS ] [ FOURIER ANALYSIS ]
- Career interview: Actuarial researcher
Shane Whelan likes a challenge, and his career path has been defined both by what he enjoyed and by a desire to keep learning. Becoming an actuary seemed like the perfect solution.
[ FUND MANAGEMENT ] [ INSURANCE ] [ PENSIONS ] [ STATISTICS ] [ STOCK MARKET ]
- Bang up a boomerang!
Here's how you can make your own cross-shaped boomerang - and it's safe enough to fly indoors! Hugh rolls up his sleeves and proves that theory isn't everything.
[ BOOMERANG ] - Unspinning the boomerang
In this article, we look at the physics behind the curved flight path of a returning boomerang, and explain that boomerangs are really a kind of gyroscope. We even show you how to bang up a boomerang yourself!
[ ANGULAR FORCE ] [ BOOMERANG ] [ CIRCULAR MOTION ] [ COUPLE ] [ FORCE ] [ GYROSCOPE ] [ MOMENT OF INERTIA ] [ PRECESSION ] - Career interview: Aerodynamicist
Plus talks to Christine Hogan, programmer, sysadmin and author, now studying aerodynamics and hoping to become a member of a Formula One team.
[ AIRCRAFT WAKE VORTEX ] [ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ] [ DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ] [ OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING ] [ RACECAR DESIGN ] [ SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION ] [ TURBULENCE ]
- Puzzle page
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ] - Puzzle page
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ] - Puzzle page
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ]
- Career interview: Architect
Wen Quek works for an award-winning architectural cooperative based in London. Recently, she worked on the new library at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Mathematical Sciences. As she tells Plus, Wen sees many parallels between mathematics and architecture.
[ ]
- In perfect harmony
The harmonic series is far less widely known than the arithmetic and geometric series. However, it is linked to a good deal of fascinating mathematics, some challenging Olympiad problems, several surprising applications, and even a famous unsolved problem. John Webb applies some divergent thinking, taking in the weather, traffic flow and card shuffling along the way.
[ ARITHMETIC SERIES ] [ CONVERGENCE ] [ CONVERGENCE ] [ DIVERGENCE ] [ GEOMETRIC SERIES ] [ HARMONIC SERIES ] [ LOGARITHM ] - An infinite series of surprises
Infinite series occupy a central and important place in mathematics. C. J. Sangwin shows us how eighteenth-century mathematician Leonhard Euler solved one of the foremost infinite series problems of his day.
[ CONVERGENCE ] [ DIVERGENCE ] [ EULER'S SOLUTION TO THE BASEL PROBLEM ] [ GEOMETRIC SERIES ] [ HARMONIC SERIES ] [ INFINITE SERIES ] [ INTEGRAL TEST ] [ POWER SERIES ] [ SINE ] - Curious quaternions
Mathematician and physicist John Baez declares himself fascinated by exceptions in mathematics. This interest has led him to study the octonions, and, through them, to find out more about the origins of complex numbers and quaternions. In the first of two articles, he talks about connections between algebra and geometry, and the importance of lateral thinking in mathematics.
[ COMPLEX NUMBER ] [ HAMILTON ] [ QUARTERNIONS ] - Ubiquitous octonions
Mathematician and physicist John Baez declares himself fascinated by exceptions in mathematics. This interest has led him to study the octonions, and, through them, to find out more about the origins of complex numbers and quaternions. In the second of two articles, he talks about the characters of the different dimensions, beauty and utility in mathematics, and just why he likes dimension 8 so much.
[ COMPLEX NUMBER ] [ HAMILTON ] [ MATHEMATICAL THINKING ] [ OCTONIONS ] [ QUARTERNIONS ] - The death of the lightning calculator
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ ARITHMETIC ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ MENTAL ARITHMETIC ]
- Practice makes perfect
In 1997 Garry Kasparov, then World Champion, lost an entire chess match to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue, and it is only a matter of time before the machines become absolutely unbeatable. But the human brain, as Lewis Dartnell explains, is still able to put up a good fight by exploiting computers' weaknesses.
[ CHESS ] [ CHINOOK ] [ COMPUTER CHESS ] [ DEEP BLUE ] [ DRAUGHTS ] [ GAME THEORY ] [ GARRY KASPAROV ] [ SHATURANGA ]
- Life as we don't know it
Physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies has made an unusual move into the infant discipline of astrobiology. He tells Plus about his interest in the big questions: what is life, how would we recognise aliens - and are they all around us?
[ ALIEN LIFE ] [ CHIRALITY ] [ EVOLUTION ] [ INFORMATION ] [ NATURAL SELECTION ] [ ORIGINS OF LIFE ] [ QUANTUM INFORMATION ] [ SEMANTIC INFORMATION ]
- Mathematical mysteries: the three body problem
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ CELESTIAL MECHANICS ] [ LAGRANGE POINT ] [ SATELLITE ] [ SPACE EXPLORATION ] [ THREE BODY PROBLEM ] - Spiralling stars
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ WOLF-RAYET STAR ] - Martian mayhem
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ NASA ] [ SPACE EXPLORATION ] - Planets, planets everywhere
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ECLIPSE ] [ GRAVITY ] [ PLANETARY ORBIT ] - Lensing helps see in the dark
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COSMOLOGY ] [ DARK MATTER ] [ GRAVITY ] [ LENS ] - All about asteroids
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ASTEROID ] [ ASTEROID COLLISION ] [ METEORITE ] [ NEWTONIAN MECHANICS ] [ SPACE EXPLORATION ] - Heavenly choreography
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ LAGRANGIAN SYSTEM ] [ NEWTONIAN MECHANICS ] [ PLANETARY ORBIT ] [ THREE BODY PROBLEM ] - Stellar heartbeats
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ACOUSTIC OSCILLATION ] [ ASTROSEISMOLOGY ] [ DOPPLER SHIFT ] [ FREQUENCY ] [ HELIOSEISMOLOGY ] [ SOUND WAVE ] [ STANDING WAVE ] - No place like home for Martin Rees
Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees gives Plus a whistlestop tour of some of the more extraordinary features of our cosmos, and explains how lucky we are that the universe is the way it is.
[ BIG BANG ] [ CURVATURE OF SPACE ] [ DARK MATTER ] [ ENERGY ] - X-otic X-ray visions
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BINARY STAR ] [ BLACK HOLE ] [ EQUATION OF STATE ] [ GRAVITATIONAL REDSHIFT ] [ NEUTRON STAR ] - Lagrange and the Interplanetary Superhighway
In the last issue Lewis Dartnell explained how chaos on the brain is not only unavoidable but also beneficial. Now he tells us why the same is true for our solar system and sends us on a journey that has been travelled by comets and spacecraft.
[ 3-BODY PROBLEM ] [ ANALYSIS ] [ ASTRONOMY ] [ CALCULUS ] [ CENTRIPETAL FORCE ] [ CHAOS ] [ COPERNICUS ] [ DYNAMICAL SYSTEM ] [ EULER ] [ GRAVITY ] [ INTERPLANETARY SUPERHIGHWAY ] [ LAGRANGE ] [ LAGRANGE POINT ] [ MANIFOLD ] [ NEWTON ] [ PHYSICS ] [ POINCARE ] [ SPACE EXPLORATION ] - The right spin: how to fly a broken space craft
On the 25th of May 1997 a dramatic collision tore a hole into the space station Mir and sent it hurtling through space. As NASA astronaut Michael Foale tells Plus, the fate of Mir and its crew hinged on a classical set of equations.
[ ASTRONOMY ] [ MOMENT OF INERTIA ] [ SPACE EXPLORATION ] [ SPIN ] - Untangling a magnetic mystery
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DYNAMO EFFECT ] [ FLUID MECHANICS ] [ MAGNETIC FIELD ] [ NEPTUNE ] [ VENUS ] - Brave young worlds
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DOPPLER SHIFT ] [ ESA ] [ GRAVITY ] [ NASA ] [ PLANET ] - John D Barrow wins Templeton Prize
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICSAND RELIGION ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - A rare view of Venus
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PLANETARY MOTION ] [ TRANSIT ] [ VENUS ] - Flyby asteroid
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ASTEROID ] [ ASTEROID COLLISION ] [ ASTRONOMY ] [ DOPPLER SHIFT ] - Just a second
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ASTRONOMY ] [ TIME ]
- Fishy business
'Of the myriad strategems I employ to avoid useful work, the one I most enjoy is to envision how scientists of earlier eras would have made use of modern computers.' John L. Casti tells us how today's mathematicians are using computers to carry on the work of turn-of-the-century polymath d'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, who showed how mathematical functions could be applied to the shape of one organism to continuously transform it into other, physically similar organisms.
[ CATASTROPHE THEORY ] [ COMPUTER RECOGNITION ] [ INVARIANT POINT ] [ MATHEMATICS OF GROWTH ] - Modelling, step by step
Why can't human beings walk as fast as they run? And why do we prefer to break into a run rather than walk above a certain speed? Using mathematical modelling, R. McNeill Alexander finds some answers.
[ BIOMECHANICS ] [ KINETIC ENERGY ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ POTENTIAL ENERGY ] [ WORK ] - Understanding the noise
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DNA ] [ GENETICS ] [ MARKOV PROCESS ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] - Clever coiling
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DNA ] [ HELIX ] [ KNOT THEORY ] [ OPTIMAL SHAPE ] - Maths for the broken-hearted
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BIOLOGY ] [ CARDIAC ARREST ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ]
- Career interview: Business analyst
From Einstein to water power, Plus author Anita King explains where maths has got her.
[ ECONOMICS ] [ MANAGEMENT ]
- Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ]
- Robots can't play tennis - yet
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ATTRACTOR ] [ LYAPUNOV STABILITY ANALYSIS ] [ ROBOTICS ] [ STABLE ATTRACTOR ] - Finding order in chaos
All of science can be regarded as motivated by the search for rules behind the randomness of nature, and attempts to make prediction in the presence of uncertainty. Chris Budd describes the search for pattern and order in chaos.
[ BUTTERFLY EFFECT ] [ DOUBLE PENDULUM ] [ GALILEO ] [ LAPLACE ] [ LORENZ ] [ NEWTONIAN MECHANICS ] [ PENDULUM ] [ PERIOD ] [ PLANETARY MOTION ] [ PREDICTION ] [ TOWN PLANNING ] [ WEATHER FORECASTING ] - Chaos in the brain
Saying that someone is a chaotic thinker might seems like an insult - but, according to Lewis Dartnell, it could be that the mathematical phenomenon of chaos is a crucial part of what makes our brains work.
[ DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ] [ LORENZ ATTRACTOR ] [ PHASE SPACE ] [ STRANGE ATTRACTOR ] [ TRANSITION TO CHAOS ] - Chaotic crochet
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BUTTERFLY EFFECT ] [ LORENZ ] [ LORENZ EQUATIONS ] [ WEATHER ]
- Puzzle page
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ CHESS ]
- Take a break
There are many errors that can occur when numbers are written, printed or transferred in any manner. Luckily, there are schemes in place to detect, and in some cases even correct, such errors almost immediately. Emily Dixon takes a break and discovers that codes are not just for sleuths.
[ BARCODE ] [ ERROR-CORRECTING CODE ] [ ISBN ] [ MODULAR ARITHMETIC ] [ NONCOMMUTATIVITY ] [ PERMUTATION ] - Calling all code crackers
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CRYPTOGRAPHY ]
- Mathematical mysteries: The Solitaire Advance
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ARITHMETIC ] [ ARITHMETICO-GEOMETRIC SERIES ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ STRATEGY ] - Mathematical mysteries: Painting the Plane
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ PLANE COLOURING ] [ RAMSEY THEORY ] - Friends and strangers
Sometimes a mathematical object can be so big that, however disorderly we make the object, areas of order are bound to emerge. Imre Leader looks at the colourful world of Ramsey Theory.
[ COLOURING ] [ GRAPH THEORY ] [ RAMSEY NUMBER ] [ RAMSEY THEORY ] - Mathematical mysteries: What colour is my hat?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ERROR-CORRECTING CODE ] [ GAME THEORY ] [ HAMMING CODE ] [ STRATEGY ] - Anything but square: from magic squares to Sudoku
Get on a commuter train these days and you can virtually see people's brains crunching away at filling the numbers from 1 to 9 into a square grid. As the Sudoku craze shows no sign of slowing, Hardeep Aiden investigates its relatives and predecessors.
[ LATIN SQUARE ] [ MAGIC SQUARE ] [ SUDOKU ]
- Kasparov defeated!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CHESS ] [ COMPUTER CHESS ] [ DEEP BLUE ] - Using Java to enhance the WWW
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ JAVA APPLET ] [ ONLINE MATHEMATICS RESOURCES ] - Cosmos launch
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COSMOLOGY ] [ SUPERCOMPUTER ] - What computers can't do
Mike Yates looks at the life and work of wartime code-breaker Alan Turing. Find out what types of numbers we can't count and why there are limits on what can be achieved with Turing machines.
[ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ] [ CANTOR'S THEOREM ] [ DIAGONALISATION ARGUMENT ] [ HALTING PROBLEM ] [ THEORETICAL COMPUTING ] [ TURING MACHINE ] [ TURING TEST ] [ UNSOLVABILITY ] - Career interview: Games developer
Andrew Wensley works at Eidos Interactive, the company who publish the mega-successful computer game Tomb Raider, featuring 90s icon Lara Croft. Andrew is a long-term computer game fan with an academic background in maths. PASS Maths caught up with him at Eidos's Wimbledon offices.
[ COMPUTER GAMING ] [ GAME DESIGN ] - Prehistoric printer
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BABBAGE'S ENGINES ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] - Prize specimens
Last October, two mathematicians won £1m when it was revealed that they were the first to solve the Eternity jigsaw puzzle. It had taken them six months and a generous helping of mathematical analysis. Mark Wainwright meets the pair and finds out how they did it.
[ BAYES THEOREM ] [ COMPUTER SEARCH ] [ ETERNITY GAME ] [ PLANE GEOMETRY ] [ PROBABILITY ] [ TILING ] - Career interview: Systems administrator
Steve Traylen tells Plus about life as a Systems Administrator.
[ DYSLEXIA ] [ FOURIER ANALYSIS ] [ NUMERICAL ANALYSIS ] [ SIGNAL PROCESSING ] [ SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION ] - Of prime importance
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GIMPS ] [ MERSENNE PRIME ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] - Why Was The Computer Invented When It Was?
Clearly the modern electronic computer couldn't have been built before electronics existed, but it's not clear why computers powered by steam or clockwork weren't invented earlier. Tom Körner speculates on the historical reasons why computers were invented when they were.
[ ALGORITHM ] [ ANALOGUE COMPUTER ] [ BABBAGE'S ENGINES ] [ MECHANICAL CALCULATOR ] [ TURING MACHINE ] - Charity begins @home
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ] [ GIMPS ] - Career interview: Games developer
In the real world, balls bounce and water splashes because of the laws of physics. In computer games, a physics engine ensures the virtual world behaves realistically. Mathematician and computer programmer Nick Gray tells us about playing God in a virtual world.
[ COMPUTER ANIMATION ] [ COMPUTER GAMING ] [ COMPUTER GRAPHICS ] [ PHYSICS ENGINE ] - CAPTCHA if they can
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ALGORITHM ] [ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ] [ THEORETICAL COMPUTING ] [ TURING TEST ] - Is now a good time?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ATTENTIVE USER INTERFACES ] [ BAYESIAN MODEL ] [ POSTERIOR PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION ] [ PRIOR PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION ] - Open wide...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CLOSED-SOURCE ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ NETWORK ] [ NODE ] [ OPEN-SOURCE ] [ SCALE FREE NETWORK ] [ SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ] - Ada Lovelace - visions of today
Rachel Thomas looks at the life and work of pioneering woman mathematician Ada Lovelace, who foresaw computer-generated music and graphics, despite living long before the computer era.
[ ANALYTICAL ENGINE ] [ BERNOULLI NUMBER ] [ CHARLES BABBAGE ] [ DIFFERENCE ENGINE ] [ WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS ] - Matrix: Simulating the world
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ COMPUTER ANIMATION ] [ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ] [ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ COMPUTER SIMULATION ] [ EMERGENT BEHAVIOUR ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELS ] - Perfect buildings: the maths of modern architecture
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ ARCHITECTURE ] [ COMPUTER GRAPHICS ] [ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ] [ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ COMPUTER SIMULATION ] [ GEOMETRY ] - Forever rich
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ COMPUTER SEARCH ] [ ETERNITY GAME ] [ PROBABILITY ] [ PUZZLE ] - Machine prose
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ GRAPH ] [ GRAPH THEORY ] [ LANGUAGE ]
- Cracking codes
In the first of two articles, Artur Ekert takes a tour through the history of codes and the prospects for truly unbreakable quantum cryptography.
[ BLETCHLEY PARK ] [ CAESAR CIPHER ] [ ENIGMA ] [ FREQUENCY ANALYSIS ] [ ONE-TIME PAD ] [ POLYALPHABETIC CIPHER ] [ SCYTALE ] [ SUBSTITUTION CIPHER ] [ VERNAM CIPHER ] - Exploring the Enigma
During the Second World War, the Allies' codebreakers worked at Bletchley Park to decipher the supposedly unbreakable Enigma code. Claire Ellis tells us about their heroic efforts, which historians believe shortened the war by two years.
[ ALAN TURING ] [ BLETCHLEY PARK ] [ ENIGMA ] - Cracking codes, part II
In the second of two articles, Artur Ekert visits the strange subatomic world and investigates the possibility of unbreakable quantum cryptography.
[ ACTION AT A DISTANCE ] [ CIPHER ] [ LOCAL REALISM ] [ QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY ] [ QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT ] - The dangers of cracking hash
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ HASH ALGORITHM ] [ INTERNET SECURITY ]
- How the leopard got its spots
How does the uniform ball of cells that make up an embryo differentiate to create the dramatic patterns of a zebra or leopard? How come there are spotty animals with stripy tails, but no stripy animals with spotty tails? Lewis Dartnell solves these, and other, puzzles of animal patterning.
[ ANIMAL PATTERNING ] [ DIFFUSION ] [ MORPHOGENESIS ] [ PARTIAL DIFFERENTIATION ] [ PERTURBATION ] [ REACTION-DIFFUSION EQUATIONS ] [ SATURATION ] [ THRESHOLD ]
- Vaccination works
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DYNAMICAL SYSTEM ] [ FRACTAL ] [ JULIA SET ] [ MANDELBROT SET ] - A fat chance of chaos?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DYNAMICAL SYSTEM ] [ FRACTAL ] [ JULIA SET ] [ MANDELBROT SET ]
- How to measure a million
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ECONOMICS ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELS ] [ RISK ANALYSIS ]
- Decoding a war time diary
An account of how a prisoner of war's diary was recently decoded. Donald Hill wrote his diary in a numerical code, disguised as a set of mathematical tables, while in Hong Kong during and after the Japanese invasion of 1941.
[ FREQUENCY ] [ SUBSTITUTION CIPHER ] [ TRANSPOSITION CIPHER ] - Oops!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ] [ SETI ] - Safety in numbers
Today's digital world with its free flow of information, would not exist without cryptography to guarantee our privacy. Plus meets mathematician, author and broadcaster Simon Singh to find out about the science of secrecy.
[ CAESAR SHIFT CIPHER ] [ CRYPTOGRAPHY ] [ DES ] [ KEY DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM ] [ RSA ] [ STEGANOGRAPHY ]
- Career interview - Electronic engineer
Geraldine Paxton, an electronics engineer, is a member of the Ford Motor Company Limited's graduate trainee scheme. Geraldine tells us about her work there, from driving cars on the German autobahns to ensuring production lines keep working. There's also salary information and a careers contact point.
[ ELECTRONICS ] [ STATISTICS ] - Pilgrims, planes and postage stamps
Practical problems often have no exact mathematical solution, and we have to resort to using unusual techniques to solve them. From navigation in the 17th century to postage stamps, see how this principle applies to a variety of real-life problems - and also learn how to use a piece of string to locate a German bomber!
[ ALGORITHM ] [ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ] [ NUMERICAL ANALYSIS ] - Millennial wobbles
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BIOFEEDBACK LOOP ] [ OSCILLATION ] [ PHASE SYNCHRONISATION ] - Shaped by the wind
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ TORQUE ] [ WIND RESISTANCE ] - Fuzzy pizza
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FOOD ENGINEERING ] [ FUZZY LOGIC ] [ QUALITY CONTROL ] - Career interview: Biomechanical engineer
Jose Munoz explains how engineering can allow you to explore the unknown, from understanding how mechanical structures bend to investigating the way genes affect the shape of embryos.
[ BIOMECHANICAL ENGINEERING ] [ GENES ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING ] - Outer space: Bridging that gap
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ENGINEERING ] [ QUADRATIC EQUATIONS ]
- Another proof for Fermat's last theorem
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM ]
- The Fields Medals 2006
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FIELDS MEDAL ] [ POINCARE CONJECTURE ]
- Career interview - Accountant
We talk to Tim Pilkington, a keen basketball player, who has a joint honours BSc in Maths, Physical Education and Sports Science from Loughborough University. Tim has worked as a mathematics teacher and is now working as an accountant.
[ ACCOUNTANCY ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ TAX ] - Career interview - Actuarial Student
Find out about what it is like to work as an actuary with Watson Wyatt Partners Worldwide. There's also salary information and a careers contact point.
[ ACTUARIAL MATHEMATICS ] [ INSURANCE ] [ STATISTICS ] - Career interview: Financial modelling
David Spaughton and Anton Merlushkin work for Credit Suisse First Boston, where they provide traders in the hectic dealing room with software based on complicated mathematical models of the financial markets. PASS Maths interviewed them at their offices in Canary Wharf in London.
[ BLACK-SCHOLES EQUATION ] [ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ] [ DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENT ] [ FUTURE ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ OPTION ] - Ye banks and Bayes
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BAYES THEOREM ] [ CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY ] [ PROBABILITY ] - Have we caught your interest?
Those who understand compound interest are destined to collect it. Those who don't are doomed to pay it - or so says a well-known source of financial advice. But what is compound interest, and why is it so important? John H. Webb explains.
[ COMPOUND INTEREST ] [ FUTURE VALUE ] [ GEOMETRIC SERIES ] [ LOGARITHM ] [ MACLAURIN SERIES ] [ PRESENT VALUE ] [ RULE OF 70 ] - Death and statistics
Actuarial science began as the place where two branches of mathematics meet: compound interest and observed mortality statistics. Financial planning for the future is therefore rooted firmly in the past. John Webb takes us through some of the mathematics involved, introducing us to some of the colourful characters who led the way.
[ ACTUARIAL MATHEMATICS ] [ ANNUITY ] [ ARITHMETICO-GEOMETRIC SERIES ] [ COMPOUND INTEREST ] [ MORTALITY TABLE ] [ PENSION ] [ PROBABILITY ] - Adam Smith and the invisible hand
Adam Smith is often thought of as the father of modern economics. In his book "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" Smith decribed the "invisible hand" mechanism by which he felt economic society operated. Modern game theory has much to add to Smith's description.
[ ADAM SMITH ] [ ARROW'S THEOREM ] [ FREE MARKET ] [ GAME THEORY ] [ INVISIBLE HAND ] [ PRISONERS' DILEMMA ] [ SOCIAL CHOICE ] - Career Interview: Actuary
Actuaries use mathematics to model the real world, finding business solutions to the perennial problems thrown up by life's uncertainties. Kathy Byrne tells Plus about life as Actuarial Director of an Insurance Company.
[ ACTUARIAL MATHEMATICS ] [ GENERAL INSURANCE ] [ LIFE INSURANCE ] [ PENSION ] [ PRICING ] [ TRANSFER VALUE ] [ VALUATION ] - Rogue trading?
The dangers of trading derivatives have been well-known ever since they were catapulted into the public eye by the spectacular losses of Nick Leeson and Barings Bank. John Dickson explains what derivatives are, and how they can be both risky, and used to reduce risk.
[ ARBITRAGE ] [ CALL OPTION ] [ DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENT ] [ FORWARD CONTRACT ] [ HEDGING ] [ OPTION ] [ PREMIUM ] [ PUT OPTION ] [ STRIKE PRICE ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ BUDGET ] [ ECONOMIC PREDICTION ] [ PERCENTAGE ] [ TAX ] - The crystal ball
If you had a crystal ball that allowed you to see your future, what would you arrange differently about your finances? Plus talks to the Government Actuary, Chris Daykin about the pensions crisis, and how actuaries use statistical and modelling techniques to plan for all our futures.
[ ACTUARIAL MATHEMATICS ] [ FORECASTING ] [ INSURANCE ] [ LIFE INSURANCE ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ MULTISTATE MODELLING ] [ PENSION ] [ STATISTICAL PREDICTION ] [ STOCHASTIC PROCESS ] - Career interview: Project finance consultant
Nick Crawley had recently set up his own financial consultancy firm in Sydney, Australia, offering advice on large-scale financing deals. He tells Plus about the challenges and rewards of working in an incentive-driven environment.
[ BLACK SCHOLES ] [ HEAT DIFFUSION EQUATION ] [ PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ] [ PROJECT FINANCE ] - Career interview: Financial maths course director
Riaz Ahmad's mathematical career has led him from the complexities of blood flow to the risks of the financial markets via underwater acoustics. Plus found out how maths can explain all this and more.
[ DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS ] [ ECONOMICS ] [ FINANCIAL MATHEMATICS ] [ TEACHING ]
- Daniel Bernoulli and the making of the fluid equation
Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) discovered the relationship between the density of a fluid in a pipe, the speed it is travelling in the pipe and the pressure exerted by the fluid against the walls of the pipe. This is the story of what happened.
[ BERNOULLI EQUATION ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] - Understanding turbulence
Have you ever been in an aeroplane on a smooth flight when suddenly the plane bumps up and down for a short time as it goes through turbulent air? The study of turbulence is used to understand a range of phenomena from the simple squirting of a jet of water to the activity of the sun.
[ AERODYNAMICS ] [ BERNOULLI EQUATION ] [ COMPUTER SIMULATION ] [ LIFT ] [ NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS ] [ TURBULENCE ] [ VECTOR ] - Testing Bernoulli: a simple experiment
Here is an experiment that you can easily do yourself to test Bernoulli's equation. There are also 2 questions and answers.
[ BERNOULLI EQUATION ] [ BOTTLE EXPERIMENT ] [ CALCULUS ] [ LEAST SQUARES ] [ TURBULENCE ] - Long range forecast
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CHAOS ] [ FORECASTING ] [ METEOROLOGY ] [ STATISTICS ] - Career interview - Meteorologist
Read about what it is like to work at the Meteorological Office in this interview with Helen Hewson. There's also a contact point for careers information.
[ COMPUTER SIMULATION ] [ DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ] [ METEOROLOGY ] [ NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS ] - Doing the twist
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BUTTERFLY EFFECT ] [ CHAOS ] [ METEOROLOGY ] [ TORNADOS ] - Probing the pint
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BUBBLE ] [ DRAG ] [ HYDROSTATICS ] - Career interview: Avalanche researcher
Jim McElwaine tells Plus how he combines his two loves - mathematics and mountaineering - in avalanche research.
[ AVALANCHE ] [ GRANULAR FLOW ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ SIMULATION ] - Worldly wobbles
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ASTRONOMY ] [ CHANDLER WOBBLE ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] - Prawn crackers
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BERNOULLI EQUATION ] [ BUBBLE ] [ CAVITATION ] - The buzz on bumblebees
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BUMBLEBEE PARADOX ] [ REYNOLDS NUMBER ] [ VISCOSITY ] - Going with the flow
Fluid mechanics is the study of flows in both liquids and gases, and is therefore enormously important in understanding many natural phenomena, as well as in industrial applications. Geophysicist Herbert Huppert tells us what happens when two fluids of different densities meet, for example when volcanos erupt and hot ash-laden air is poured out into the atmosphere.
[ GRANULAR FLOW ] [ GRAVITY CURRENT ] [ PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ] [ PARTICLE-LADEN GRAVITY CURRENT ] [ PYROCLASTIC FLOW ] [ TURBIDITY FLOW ] [ VOLCANIC ERUPTION ] - Core business
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DYNAMO EFFECT ] [ GEOMAGNETISM ] [ MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS OF ELECTROMAGNETISM ] - Hardboiled detectives
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CENTRE OF GRAVITY ] [ FRICTION ] [ GYROSCOPE ] [ KINETIC ENERGY ] [ POTENTIAL ENERGY ] - Just a little turbulence
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DAMPING ] [ NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS ] [ QUANTUM TURBULENCE ] [ REYNOLDS NUMBER ] [ SUPERFLUID ] [ TURBULENCE ] [ VISCOSITY ] [ VORTEX ] - Career interview: Fluid mechanics researcher
André Léger studies the fluid mechanics of food travelling through the intestines for consumer goods giant Unilever.
[ CHEMICAL ENGINEERING ] [ INDUSTRIAL MATHEMATICS ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] - A current problem
Frances Elwell looks at the eddies and currents, from the pungent problem of sewage outflow to the search for bodies of people who have fallen into rivers, explaining that fluid mechanics lies behind it all.
[ CURRENT ] [ EDDIES ] [ SINE WAVE ] [ WAVE ] - Ripped off at the beach
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS ] [ OCEAN RIPS ] - And now, the weather...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FLUID MECHANICS ] [ FORECASTING ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ METEOROLOGY ] [ NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS ]
- Career interview: Audio software engineer
Skot McDonald talks to Plus about how he uses mathematics to understand music, and how he managed to combine his passions for music and computing to create a successful career.
[ DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING ] [ FOURIER ANALYSIS ] [ FREQUENCY ] [ HARMONIC SERIES ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ]
- Outer space: Superficiality
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ FRACTAL ] [ SURFACE ] [ VOLUME ] - Unveiling the Mandelbrot set
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ COMPLEX DYNAMICS ] [ COMPLEX NUMBER ] [ FRACTAL ] [ JULIA SET ] [ MANDELBROT SET ] - The artist's fractal fingerprint
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FRACTAL ]
- What mathematicians get up to
After 5,000 years, the game of Nine Men's Morris has succumbed to the power of modern computing, plus other recent mathematical discoveries in the world of games.
[ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ] [ GAME OF NO CHANCE ] [ RECREATIONAL GAME ] - Game theory and the Cuban missile crisis
Steven J. Brams uses the Cuban missile crisis to illustrate the Theory of Moves, which is not just an abstract mathematical model but one that mirrors the real-life choices, and underlying thinking, of flesh-and-blood decision makers.
[ CHICKEN ] [ MIXED STRATEGY ] [ NASH EQUILIBRIUM ] [ STABLE STRATEGY ] [ STRATEGY ] [ THEORY OF MOVES ] - Mathematical mysteries: Chomp
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ STRATEGY ] - Mathematical mysteries: Survival of the nicest?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ALTRUISM ] [ COOPERATION ] [ EVOLUTION ] [ ITERATED PRISONERS' DILEMMA ] [ PRISONERS' DILEMMA ] [ TIT FOR TAT ] [ TIT FOR TAT WITH FORGIVENESS ] - Games, Life and the Game of Life
When we finally meet the Martians, John Conway believes they are going to want to talk mathematics. He talks to Plus about his Life game, artificial life and what we will have in common with extraterrestrials.
[ CELLULAR AUTOMATA ] [ GAME OF LIFE ] [ GO ] [ LOGIC ] [ LOGIC GATE ] [ SURREAL NUMBER ] - On the ball
If your team scores first in a football match, how likely is it to win? And when is it worth committing a professional foul? John Haigh shows us how to use probability to answer these and other questions, and explains the implications for the rules of the game.
[ FOOTBALL STRATEGY ] [ POISSON DISTRIBUTION ] [ PROBABILITY ] - Blast it like Beckham?
What tactics should a soccer player use when taking a penalty kick? And what can the goalkeeper do to foil his plans? John Haigh uses Game Theory to find the answers, and looks at his World Cup predictions from last issue.
[ DOMINATED STRATEGY ] [ FOOTBALL STRATEGY ] [ OPTIMAL STRATEGY ] [ PAYOFF MATRIX ] [ PENALTY TACTICS ] [ POISSON DISTRIBUTION ] - Love's a gamble
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ EQUILIBRIUM ] [ GAME THEORY ] [ NASH EQUILIBRIUM ] [ PSYCHOLOGY ] - Game theory wins Nobel prize
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GAME THEORY ] [ NASH EQUILIBRIUM ] [ NOBEL PRIZE ]
- Mathematical mysteries: Kepler's conjecture
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ KEPLER'S CONJECTURE ] [ SPHERE PACKING PROBLEM ] [ THREE-DIMENSIONAL PACKING ] - The origins of fractals
The term fractal, introduced in the mid 1970's by Benoit Mandelbrot, is now commonly used to describe this family of non-differentiable functions that are infinite in length. Find out more about their origins and history.
[ CONTINUITY ] [ DIFFERENTIABILITY ] [ FRACTAL ] [ HILBERT SPACE-FILLING CURVE ] [ WEIERSTRASS' FUNCTION ] - Modelling nature with fractals
Computer games and cinema special effects owe much of their realism to the study of fractals. Martin Turner takes you on a journey from the motion of a microscopic particle to the creation of imaginary moonscapes.
[ BROWNIAN MOTION ] [ FRACTAL ] [ FRACTAL FORGERY ] [ ITERATION ] [ MANDELBROT SURFACE ] [ VON KOCH CURVE ] - Time and motion
Whatever is so wonderful about point B that makes all the people at point A want to get there? Robert Hunt sits at point C, and muses on the problem.
[ GEODESIC ] [ GREAT CIRCLE ] [ LATITUDE ] [ LONGITUDE ] [ SCALAR (DOT) PRODUCT ] [ VECTOR ] - Mathematical Mysteries: Trisecting the Angle
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ANGLE TRISECTION ] [ CUBIC EQUATIONS ] [ PROOF ] [ TRIGONOMETRY ] [ WANTZEL'S LEMMA ] - Mathematical mysteries: How unilluminating!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ SNOOKER TABLE PROBLEM ] [ UNILLUMINABLE ROOM ] - Extracting beauty from chaos
Images based on Lyapunov Exponent fractals are very striking. Andy Burbanks explains what Lyapunov Exponents are, what the much misunderstood phenomenon of chaos really is, and how you can iterate functions to produce marvellous images of chaos from simple mathematics.
[ BIFURCATION ] [ CHAOS ] [ DYNAMICAL SYSTEM ] [ ERROR ] [ FRACTAL ] [ ITERATION ] [ LOGISTIC MAP ] [ LYAPUNOV EXPONENT ] [ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ ORBIT ] - 12:00 PMT?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ LONGITUDE ] [ MERIDIAN ] [ TIME ] - Jackson's fractals
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DIMENSION ] [ FRACTAL ] [ LOGARITHM ] [ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ VON KOCH CURVE ] - Fractal expressionism
In the late 1940s, American painter Jackson Pollock dripped paint from a can on to vast canvases rolled out across the floor of his barn. Richard P. Taylor explains that Pollock's patterns are really fractals - the fingerprint of Nature.
[ CHAOS ] [ DIMENSION ] [ FRACTAL ] [ LEVY FLIGHT ] [ LOGARITHM ] [ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ SCALING ] - Analemmatic sundials: How to build one and why they work
We've all seen a traditional sundial, where a triangular wedge is used to cast a shadow onto a marked-out dial - but did you know that there is another kind? In this article, Chris Sangwin and Chris Budd tell us about a different kind of sundial, the analemmatic design, where you can use your own shadow to tell the time.
[ ANGULAR DISTANCE ] [ DECLINATION OF THE SUN ] [ ELLIPSE ] [ PROJECTION ] [ SUNDIAL ] [ TRIGONOMETRY ] - Mathematical mysteries: Right angle race
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ RIGHT ANGLE CONSTRUCTION ] - Double bubble is no trouble
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MINIMAL SURFACE ] [ NON-STANDARD BUBBLE ] [ ROTATION ] [ STABILITY ] [ VOLUME ] - How big is the Milky Way?
A question which has been vexing astronomers for a long time is whether the forces of attraction between stars and galaxies will eventually result in the universe collapsing back into a single point, or whether it will expand forever with the distances between stars and galaxies growing ever larger. Toby O'Neil describes how the mathematical theory of dimension gives us a way of approaching the question.
[ BOX DIMENSION ] [ CANTOR DUST ] [ DIMENSION ] [ FRACTAL ] [ PROJECTION ] [ SCALING ] - From quasicrystals to Kleenex
This pattern with kite-shaped tiles can be extended to cover any area, but however big we make it, the pattern never repeats itself. Alison Boyle investigates aperiodic tilings, which have had unexpected applications in describing new crystal structures.
[ APERIODIC TILING ] [ ESCHER ] [ PENROSE TILING ] [ PERIODIC TILING ] [ QUASICRYSTAL ] [ QUASIPERIODICITY ] [ TESSELLATION ] - On the dissecting table
Bill Casselman writes about the intriguing amateur mathematician Henry Perigal, who took his elegant proof of Pythagoras' Theorem literally to his grave - by having it carved on his tombstone.
[ CONGRUENCE ] [ CUT-AND-SHIFT PROOF ] [ DISSECTION PROOF ] [ HENRY PERIGAL ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ LATTICE TILING ] [ PYTHAGORAS' THEOREM ] [ PYTHAGORAS TILING ] [ TESSELLATION ] - Measure for measure
Can you imagine objects that you can't measure? Not ones that don't exist, but real things that have no length or area or volume? It might sound weird, but they're out there. Andrew Davies gives us an introduction to Measure Theory.
[ BANACH-TARSKI PARADOX ] [ CANTOR DUST ] [ CANTOR SET ] [ FRACTAL ] [ LEBESGUE INTEGRATION ] [ MEASURABILITY ] [ MEASURE THEORY ] [ RIEMANN INTEGRATION ] [ SIERPINSKI'S CARPET ] - Mathematical mysteries: Strange Geometries
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ CURVATURE ] [ CURVATURE OF SPACE ] [ ESCHER ] [ EUCLID'S ELEMENTS ] [ EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY ] [ FLATNESS ] [ HYPERBOLIC GEOMETRY ] [ MERCATOR PROJECTION ] [ SPHERICAL GEOMETRY ] [ TRIGONOMETRY ] - New designs from Africa
Paulus Gerdes takes us on a tour of the mathematical properties of some beautiful designs inspired by the traditional art of Angolan tribespeople.
[ AFRICAN PICTOGRAM ] [ DIAGONAL SYMMETRY ] [ MAGIC SQUARE ] [ MATRIX ] - Reflecting on extinction
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ENDANGERED SPECIES ] [ SYMMETRY ] - Putting it in perspective
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ PROJECTION ] - Newton and the kissing problem
In 1694, a famous discussion between two of the leading scientists of the day - Isaac Newton and David Gregory - took place on the campus of Cambridge University. The discussion concerned the kissing problem, but it was to be another 260 years before the problem was finally solved.
[ DAVID GREGORY ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ ISAAC NEWTON ] [ KISSING PROBLEM ] [ PACKING ] [ PLANE GEOMETRY ] - Parallel parking
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MULTILATERATION ] - Puzzle page
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ROTATION ] [ TRANSLATION ] - Imaging maths - Inside the Klein bottle
In the first of a new series 'Imaging Maths', Plus takes an illustrated tour of an extraordinary geometric construction: the Klein bottle.
[ GEODESIC ] [ HELICOIDAL SURFACE ] [ KLEIN BOTTLE ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELS ] [ ONE-SIDED SURFACE ] [ ORIENTABILITY ] [ PROJECTIVE PLANE ] [ SURFACE ] [ TOPOLOGY ] [ TORUS ] [ TWO-SIDED SURFACE ] [ VISUALISATION ] - Drinking coffee in the Klein Café
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ CONIC SECTIONS ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ PAPPUS'S THEOREM ] [ PROJECTIVE GEOMETRY ] - Maths goes to the movies
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ COMPLEX NUMBER ] [ COMPUTER GAMING ] [ COMPUTER GRAPHICS ] [ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ COMPUTER SIMULATION ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ QUATERNIONS ] [ VECTOR ] - Virtually reducing the 3D load
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COMPUTER GRAPHICS ] - Mouthwatering maths
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ INVERSE SQUARE LAW ] [ MINIMAL ENERGY ] [ POPPYSEED BAGEL THEOREM ] [ SURFACE ] - Welcome to the maths lab
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ KEPLER'S CONJECTURE ] [ PROOF ]
- Graphical methods I: Slug wars
To arm or to disarm? This is the question in Phil Wilson's article, which explores the maths behind a cold war in slug world.
[ COLD WAR ] [ GRAPH ] [ GRAPHICAL METHODS ] [ SLUGS ] - Graphical Methods II: The return of the slime
In last issue's Graphical methods I Phil Wilson used maths to predict the outcome of a cold war in slug world. In this self-contained article he looks at slug world after the disaster: with only a few survivors and all infra-structure destroyed, which species will take root and how will they develop? Graphs can tell it all.
[ COLD WAR ] [ GRAPH ] [ GRAPHICAL METHODS ] - Graphical methods III: the slugs bounce back
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ ECONOMIC PREDICTION ] [ ECONOMICS ] [ GRAPHICAL METHODS ] [ SUPPLY AND DEMAND ]
- All tied up
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ SHOELACE PROBLEM ] [ TRAVELLING SALESMAN PROBLEM ]
- Through the looking-glass
Some molecules - thalidomide, for example - come in both left and right handed versions, while others are indistinguishable from their reflections. Plus finds out about the role of mathematical symmetry in chemistry.
[ CHIRALITY ] [ HANDEDNESS ] [ IDENTITY ] [ INVERSION ] [ REFLECTION ] [ ROTATION ] [ SYMMETRY ] [ SYMMETRY OPERATIONS ] - The power of groups
Groups are some of the most fundamental objects in maths. Take a system of interacting objects and strip it to the bone to see what makes it tick, and very often you're faced with a group. Colva Roney-Dougal takes us into their abstract world and puzzles over a game of Solitaire.
[ ALGEBRA ] [ GROUP THEORY ] - An enormous theorem: the classification of finite simple groups
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ ALGEBRA ] [ GROUP THEORY ] [ SYMMETRY ]
- Agner Krarup Erlang (1878 - 1929)
The mathematics underlying today's complex telephone networks is still based on his work. Erlang was the first person to study the problem of telephone networks.
[ ERLANG'S FORMULA ] [ INFORMATION THEORY ] [ NETWORK ] - Women in the history of mathematics
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS ] - Against the odds
Danielle Stretch looks back at the remarkable life of pioneering mathematician Emmy Amalie Noether (1882-1935). Despite her constant struggles to make her way in a man's world, she made significant contributions to the development of modern algebra.
[ ALGEBRA ] [ EMMY NOETHER ] [ IDEAL ] [ NOETHER'S THEOREM ] [ RING ] [ WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS ] - Ancient maths recovered
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ IMAGE ANALYSIS ] [ MULTISPECTRAL IMAGING ] - Mathematical mysteries:
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ BERNOULLI ] [ EXPECTED PRIZE ] [ INSURANCE ] [ ST. PETERSBURG PARADOX ] [ UTILITY FUNCTION ] - Stolen science
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA ] - How maths can make you rich and famous: Part II
One million dollars is waiting to be won by anyone who can solve one of the grand mathematical challenges of the 21st century. In the second of two articles, Chris Budd looks at the well-posedness of the Navier-Stokes equations.
[ AERODYNAMICS ] [ ANGLE TRISECTION ] [ CIRCLE-SQUARING ] [ CLAY INSTITUTE MILLENNIUM PRIZE PROBLEMS ] [ DOUBLING CUBE ] [ FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM ] [ FLUID MECHANICS ] [ HILBERT PROBLEMS ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS ] - From kaleidoscopes to soccer balls
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CURVATURE ] [ ESCHER ] [ GEODESIC DOME ] [ GROUP THEORY ] [ HYPERBOLIC GEOMETRY ] [ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ SYMMETRY ] - Genius, stupidity and genius again
Tope Omitola looks back at the tragically short but inspiringly productive life of a true original: Evariste Galois.
[ EVARISTE GALOIS ] [ GROUP THEORY ] [ RADICAL ] - We must know, we will know
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ AXIOM ] [ EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY ] [ HILBERT PROBLEMS ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ INCOMPLETENESS THEOREM ] [ LOGIC ] - "Read Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all."
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ EULER ] [ EULER YEAR ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ HARMONIC SERIES ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ INFINITE SERIES ] [ TOPOLOGY ] - Outer space: Tally ho!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ARITHMETIC ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ MATHEMATICS IN SPORT ] [ TALLYING ] - Not just knots: the secrets of khipu
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ANTHROPOLOGY ] [ ARCHAEOLOGY ] [ INKA ] [ KHIPU ] [ LANGUAGE ] [ NUMBER SYSTEM ]
- Forget Sudoku and smile for the camera
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FOURIER ANALYSIS ] [ SUDOKU ]
- Helping business make a crust
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FOUR-COLOUR THEOREM ] [ INDUSTRIAL MATHEMATICS ]
- Call routing in telephone networks
Find out how modern telephone networks use mathematics to make it possible for a person to dial a friend in another country just as easily as if they were in the same street, or to read web pages that are on a computer in another continent.
[ COMPUTER SIMULATION ] [ ERLANG'S FORMULA ] [ NETWORK ] [ ROUTING SCHEME ] [ STICKY ROUTING ] - Coding theory: the first 50 years
Space probes, like NASA's recent Pathfinder mission to Mars, have radio transmitters of only a few watts, but have to transmit pictures and scientific data across hundreds of millions of miles without the information being completely swamped by noise. Read about how coding theory helps.
[ CODE ] [ ERROR-CORRECTING CODE ] [ PARITY CODE ] - Dynamic programming: an introduction
The previous feature, "Mathematics, marriage and finding somewhere to eat" investigated the problem of finding the best potential partner from a fixed number of potential partners using a technique known as "optimal stopping". Inevitably, mathematicians and mathematical psychologists have constructed other models of the problem...
[ DECISION THEORY ] [ DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING ] [ OPERATIONAL RESEARCH ] - Codes, trees and the prefix property
Underlying our vast global telecommunications networks are codes: formal schemes for representing information in machine-readable and transmissible formats. Kona Macphee examines the prefix property, one of the important features of a good code.
[ BINARY CODE ] [ CODE ] [ NODE ] [ PATH ] [ PREFIX PROPERTY ] [ TREE ] - RIP Claude Shannon
Claude Shannon, who died on February 24, was the founder of Information Theory, which is the basis of modern telecommunications. Rachel Thomas looks at Shannon's life and works.
[ BINARY CODE ] [ BOOLEAN ALGEBRA ] - Bigger bandwidth
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BANDWIDTH ] [ ELECTRIC FIELD ] [ FREQUENCY ] [ MAGNETIC FIELD ] [ POLARISATION ] [ SCATTERING ] [ SIGNAL PROCESSING ] - Dashing along
Currently, disabled computer users have a hard time inputting text, using laborious word-completion. Plus find out how this is changing, thanks to Dasher, a new open-source text-entry system based on arithmetic coding.
[ ARITHMETIC CODING ] [ LIBRARY OF BABEL ] [ VISUAL TEXT INPUT ] - Text, Bytes and Videotape
How can a 3 hour long film like the Lord of the Rings fit on a single DVD? Hw cn U rd txt msgs? How do MP3s make music files smaller, so they can be downloaded faster off the Internet? All these things rely on the mathematics of data compression.
[ DATA COMPRESSION ] [ EFFICIENT CODING ] [ ENTROPY ] [ HUFFMAN CODING ] [ TWENTY QUESTIONS ] [ UNIVERSAL CODING ]
- Career interview: Freelance IT consultant
Jason Winborn specialises in human resource management software Peoplesoft, and has been working freelance as a consultant for four years.
[ ACCOUNTING ] [ SOFTWARE CONSULTING ]
- The origins of proof
Starting in this issue, PASS Maths is pleased to present a series of articles about proof and logical reasoning. In this article we give a brief introduction to deductive reasoning and take a look at one of the earliest known examples of mathematical proof.
[ AXIOM ] [ DEDUCTION ] [ EUCLID'S ELEMENTS ] [ PREMISE ] [ PROOF ] - The origins of proof II : Kepler's proofs
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) is now chiefly remembered as a mathematical astronomer who discovered three laws that describe the motion of the planets. J.V. Field continues our series on the origins of proof with an examination of Kepler's astronomy.
[ ASTRONOMY ] [ ELLIPSE ] [ ERROR ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ GRAVITY ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ KEPLER'S THREE LAWS OF PLANETARY MOTION ] [ PROOF ] - The origins of proof III: Proof and puzzles through the ages
For millennia, puzzles and paradoxes have forced mathematicians to continually rethink their ideas of what proofs actually are. Jon Walthoe explains the tricks involved and how great thinkers like Pythagoras, Newton and Gödel tackled the problems.
[ AXIOM ] [ CALCULUS ] [ DEDUCTION ] [ GöDEL'S INCOMPLETENESS THEOREM ] [ INDUCTION ] [ IRRATIONAL NUMBER ] [ PARADOX ] [ PROOF ] [ RATIONAL NUMBER ] [ RUSSELL'S PARADOX ] - The origins of proof IV: The philosophy of proof
Robert Hunt concludes our Origins of Proof series by asking what a proof really is, and how we know that we've actually found one. One for the philosophers to ponder...
[ AXIOM ] [ FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM ] [ FOUR-COLOUR THEOREM ] [ MINIMAL CRIMINAL ] [ PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ PROOF ] - Mathematical mysteries: Zeno's Paradoxes
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ACHILLES PARADOX ] [ ARROW PARADOX ] [ CONVERGENCE ] [ GEOMETRIC SERIES ] [ LIMIT ] [ THEORY OF RELATIVITY ] [ WORLDLINE ] [ ZENO'S PARADOXES ] - Mathematical mysteries: The Barber's Paradox
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ BARBER'S PARADOX ] [ FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS ] [ RUSSELL'S PARADOX ] [ SET THEORY ] [ THEORY OF TYPES ] [ ZERMELO-FRAENKEL AXIOMATISATION OF SET THEORY ] - A bright idea
What do computers and light switches have in common? Yutaka Nishiyama illuminates the connection between light bulbs, logic and binary arithmetic.
[ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ] [ BOOLEAN ALGEBRA ] [ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ LOGIC ] [ LOGIC GATE ] [ TRUTH TABLE ] - Gödel and the limits of logic
When Kurt Gödel published his incompleteness theorem in 1931, the mathematical community was stunned: using maths he had proved that there are limits to what maths can prove. This put an end to the hope that all of maths could one day be unified in one elegant theory and had very real implications for computer science. John W Dawson describes Gödel's brilliant work and troubled life.
[ GöDEL'S INCOMPLETENESS THEOREM ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ LOGIC ]
- Career interview - Qualifications Manager
Karen Reid, whose hobbies include badminton and salsa dancing, is a Maths graduate. She works as a Qualifications Manager at RSA Examinations Board, Coventry and has also taught Maths.
[ EXAMINATIONS ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] - Career interview: Military air traffic controller
Geoff Wilson is an air traffic controller for the Royal Air Force. Recently back from Kabul in Afghanistan, he tells Plus how logical thinking under pressure is crucial in his job.
[ AERONAUTICS ] [ NAVIGATION ]
- Career interview: Film marketing analyst
Francesca Harris has always known she wanted to work in the music or film industry, and she has found that her maths skills have stood her in good stead as she works her way up.
[ FILM INDUSTRY ] [ MUSIC INDUSTRY ]
- Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ CONTRACT ] [ LAW ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - Beat the crush
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ] [ CROWD DYNAMICS ] - The mathematics of diseases
Over the past one hundred years, mathematics has been used to understand and predict the spread of diseases, relating important public-health questions to basic infection parameters. Matthew Keeling describes some of the mathematical developments that have improved our understanding and predictive ability.
[ DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ] [ EPIDEMIOLOGY ] - Playing the laying a pale egg game
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GAME THEORY ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ CONTRACT ] [ LAW ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - Formulaic football
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MARKOV PROCESS ] [ PROBABILITY ] [ TRANSITION PROBABILITY ] - Anticipating anthrax
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ EPIDEMIOLOGY ] - Lightning fast forecasts
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM ] [ LIGHTNING PREDICTION ] [ POTENTIAL ] [ STATISTICAL REGRESSION ] - Howzat!
Numbers are bandied around all the time in sports coverage - and cricket is particularly rich in statistics and rankings. It has probably not escaped your attention that the World Cup of cricket has just finished in South Africa (Australia won - again) and so to mark the occasion, Rob Eastaway tells Plus what it takes to be the best.
[ ALGORITHM ] [ AVERAGE ] [ EXPONENTIALLY DECAYING AVERAGE ] [ RATING ] [ TREND ] - Maths on the brain
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BIOMATHEMATICS ] [ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ NEURAL NETWORK ] - Model behaviour
To study a system, mathematicians begin by identifying its most crucial elements, and try to describe them in simple mathematical terms. As Phil Wilson tells us, this simplification is the essence of mathematical modelling.
[ DIMENSIONLESS GROUPS ] [ EPIDEMIOLOGY ] [ HOOKE'S LAW ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] - Understanding influenza
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ EPIDEMIOLOGY ] [ EVOLUTION ] [ MEDICINE ] [ STATISTICAL PREDICTION ] [ STOCHASTIC MODEL ] - Help defeat malaria in Africa
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ] [ MALARIA ] [ MEDICINE ] - When will they blow?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FLUID MECHANICS ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ PREDICTION ] [ VOLCANIC ERUPTION ]
- Maths on the brain
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ INTUITION ] - Natural born mathematicians
Neuropsychologist Brian Butterworth tells us about research showing that even newborn babies have a basic understanding of number. It seems we are all mathematicians!
[ BABY'S ARITHMETICAL EXPECTATIONS ] [ CARDINALITY ] [ DYSPRAXIA ] [ GIFTEDNESS ] [ HUMAN CALCULATOR ] - Counting canines
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CARDINALITY ] - Music to their ears
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] [ MOZART ]
- Career interview: Maths editor
Plus talks to Jon Walthoe, a commissioning editor for maths book, about finding new books, windsurfing and choosing a career.
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ PUBLISHING ]
- Crime fighting maths
Maths is not the first thing that springs to mind when you think about fighting crime. But a closer look reveals that it is behind many of the techniques that modern detectives rely on. Chris Budd investigates.
[ INVERSE PROBLEM ] [ MATHEMATICS AND CRIME ]
- The art of numbers
At the Hewlett Packard campus in Bristol, a group of keen researchers are bringing together the worlds of advanced mathematics and fine art. Kona Macphee investigates.
[ GEODESIC ] [ GEODESIC DOME ] [ HYPERCONE ] [ LYAPUNOV FRACTAL ] [ SCULPTURE ] - A postcard from Italy
Eugen Jost is a Swiss artist whose work is strongly influenced by mathematics. He sent us this Postcard from Italy, telling us about his work and the important roles that nature and numbers play in it.
[ FIBONACCI NUMBER ] [ INFINITY ] [ PALINDROME ] [ PARADOX ] [ PUZZLE ] [ SUNDIAL ] [ SYMMETRY ] [ TRIGONOMETRY ] - Self-similar syncopations:
Fibonacci, L-systems, limericks and ragtime
Kevin Jones investigates the links between music and mathematics, throwing in limericks, Fibonacci and Scott Joplin along the way. Plus is proud to present an extended version of his winning entry for the THES/OUP 1999 Science Writing Prize.
[ FIBONACCI NUMBER ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] [ RECURSION ] [ RHYTHM ] [ SELF-SIMILARITY ] - The golden ratio and aesthetics
It was Euclid who first defined the Golden Ratio, and ever since people have been fascinated by its extraordinary properties. Find out if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and how the Golden Ratio crosses from mathematics to the arts.
[ AESTHETICS ] [ FIBONACCI NUMBER ] [ GOLDEN RATIO ] - Getting into the picture
Imagine stepping inside your favourite painting, walking around the light-filled music room of Vermeer's "The Music Lesson" or exploring the chapel in the "Trinity" painted by Masaccio in the 15th century. Using the mathematics of perspective, researchers are now able to produce three-dimensional reconstructions of the scenes depicted in these works.
[ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ MATRIX ] [ PERSPECTIVE ] [ PROJECTIVE GEOMETRY ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ AESTHETICS ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ KLEIN BOTTLE ] - Dancing with Einstein
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BROWNIAN MOTION ] [ DANCE ] [ EINSTEIN ] [ EINSTEIN YEAR ] [ PHOTON ] [ PHYSICS ] [ RAMBERT DANCE COMPANY ] [ SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY ] - Maths and art: the whistlestop tour
Many people find no beauty and pleasure in maths - but, as Lewis Dartnell explains, our brains have evolved to take pleasure in rhythm, structure and pattern. Since these topics are fundamentally mathematical, it should be no surprise that mathematical methods can illuminate our aesthetic sense.
[ ANAMORPHIS ] [ ESCHER ] [ FRACTAL ] [ GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION ] [ GEOMETRIC PATTERNS ] [ GOLDEN RATIO ] [ MINIMAL SURFACE ] [ ORIGAMI ] [ REGULAR POLYHEDRON ] [ TESSELLATION ] - The magical mathematics of music
According to Shakespeare, music is the food of love. But Jeffrey Rosenthal follows Galileo's observation that the entire universe is written in the language of mathematics - and that includes music.
[ CHORD ] [ FREQUENCY ] [ HARMONY ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] [ OCTAVE ] [ PITCH ] [ WAVE ] - ART+MATH=X
Carla Farsi is both an artist and a mathematician, who declared 2005 her Special Year for art and maths. Find out what she got up to, and what it's like being a part of both worlds.
[ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ TEACHING ] [ VISUALISATION ] - Career interview: computer music researcher
Teaching a machine to understand music is an incredibly difficult task, which uses all the mathematical power of digital signal processing. But teaching a machine to compose music is quite another matter, and the wonderful world of mathematical patterns proves to be a gold mine. Nick Collins talks to Plus about his artifical musician.
[ FOURIER ANALYSIS ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] [ SIGNAL PROCESSING ] - Career interview: furniture design
Two designers tell us how they took the long way round to design, and how the maths and science they took in on the way helps them with their work today.
[ DESIGN ] [ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] - Music and Euclid's algorithm
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ EUCLID'S ALGORITHM ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] - Let there be light... (but not too much!)
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CONTRAST ] [ DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY ] [ GAUSSIAN BLUR ] [ IMAGE ANALYSIS ] - And the Oscar goes to...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING ] [ FOURIER ANALYSIS ] [ FREQUENCY ] [ FREQUENCY ] - Bridges: mathematical connections in art and music
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FRACTAL ] [ HYPERBOLIC GEOMETRY ] [ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] - Still life
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ELLIPTIC GEOMETRY ] [ HYPERBOLIC GEOMETRY ] [ KLEIN BOTTLE ] [ MöBIUS STRIP ] [ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ VISUALISATION ]
MATHEMATICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
- Bracing for the storm
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ENGINEERING ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ MATHEMATICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT ]
- Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ IT ] - Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ COMPUTER MARKING ] [ EXAMINATIONS ] [ ONLINE MATHEMATICS RESOURCES ] [ SYLLABUS ] - Student interview - Alexander Langley
Alexander Langley is a first year BSc Maths student at Sheffield Hallam University. He talks about his interests and life both at school and university.
[ WORK EXPERIENCE ] - Student interview - David Ruddock
David Ruddock describes himself as an artist who studied Maths. He talks about how he spent his gap year, his studies and his interests as an artist and mathematician.
[ UNIVERSITY STUDY ] - Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ SCHOOL CURRICULUM ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ EXAMINATIONS ] [ STATISTICS ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ CAREERS WITH MATHEMATICS ] [ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] [ STATISTICS IN COURT ] - Career interview: Primary teacher
Whether you love maths or hate maths, your opinions on the subject were probably formed early. So primary teachers have a vital role to play in promoting mathematical skills. Plus meets primary teacher and maths coordinator Maureen Matthews.
[ MATHEMATICS AND ART ] [ MATHEMATICS ENRICHMENT ] [ PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] - Interview: Maths student
In this issue we talk to maths student Emily Dixon about her university studies, and where maths might take her in the future.
[ CODE ] [ MAPLE ] [ NETWORK PROTOCOL ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ADRIAN SMITH ] [ NRICH ] [ QUADRATIC EQUATIONS ] [ TEACHER RECRUITMENT ] - Career interview: IT project manager
Bharat Dodia tells Plus how his love of maths has taken him from turbulent times to building better IT systems for Ford.
[ CODE ] [ MAPLE ] [ NETWORK PROTOCOL ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ EXAMINATIONS ] [ PERFORMANCE MONITORING ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ADRIAN SMITH ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ADRIAN SMITH ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] - Career interview: maths teacher
Adrian Dow has a huge change ahead of him: after fourteen years in the UK and around the world, he's about to return to his native Trinidad with the ultimate aim to open his own school. Plus intercepted him on the way to the airport.
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ TEACHING ] - Mathematically fluent
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS VOCABULARY ] [ MBUTTON ] [ THESAURUS ] - Will new maths GCSEs leave students unprepared?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ TEACHING ] - Erasing experimental error
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CENSUS ] [ DATA HANDLING ] [ NUMERACY ] [ STATISTICS ] - Convergence: Where Mathematics, History and Teaching Interact
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS ENRICHMENT ] [ TEACHING ] - The Further Maths Network has been launched
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS ENRICHMENT ] [ TEACHING ] - North and south
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS ENRICHMENT ] [ TEACHING ] - Royal recognition
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] - Connections in space
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ]
- Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ 6174 ] [ FOOTBALL ] [ MATHEMATICS IN SPORT ] [ PLUS NEW WRITERS AWARD ] - Eye on the ball
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FLUID MECHANICS ] [ FOOTBALL ] [ MATHEMATICS IN SPORT ] [ NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS ]
- Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] - Einstein as icon
One hundred years ago, in 1905, Albert Einstein changed physics forever with his special theory of relativity. Since then his name — and hair do — have become synonymous with genius. John D Barrow looks at Einstein as a media star.
[ EINSTEIN ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PHYSICS ] [ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ FIELDS MEDAL ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM ] [ FIELDS MEDAL ] [ KEPLER'S CONJECTURE ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PHYSICS ] [ PLUS BIRTHDAY ] [ POINCARE CONJECTURE ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] [ PRIME NUMBER DISTRIBUTION ] [ SEARCH ENGINE ] - How time does PASS
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PLUS BIRTHDAY ] - Count-abel even if not solve-abel
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ABEL PRIZE ] [ ANALYSIS ] [ ATIYAH-SINGER INDEX THEOREM ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ TOPOLOGY ] - Post-14 post-Smith
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ STATISTICS ] - Plus appears on Doctor Who!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - Happy birthday, Plus!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PLUS BIRTHDAY ] - Burning buried sunshine
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CHEMISTRY ] [ ENERGY ] [ FOSSIL FUELS ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - Struggling for sixteen
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY ] [ HILBERT PROBLEMS ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - Near miss or normal?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ASTEROID COLLISION ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ NEAR EARTH OBJECTS ] [ TORINO SCALE ]
- Searching for the soul in the machine
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTERS ] - Hide and seek
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTERS ]
- Speechless maths
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ LANGUAGE ] [ PSYCHOLOGY ] - Relating relativity
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ LINEAR ALGEBRA ] [ MATHEMATICS AND LANGUAGE ] [ VECTOR ]
- Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ] - Teaching excellence
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ADRIAN SMITH ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ]
- Puzzle page
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ SPEED ] [ WEIGHT ] - Puzzle page
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ SPEED ] [ WEIGHT ] - Outer space: Wagons Roll
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ANGULAR VELOCITY ] - Outer space: Two's company, three's a crowd
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ 3-BODY PROBLEM ] [ 5-BODY PROBLEM ] [ GRAVITY ] [ SLINGSHOT ]
- Remembrance of numbers past
Memory is fundamental to the way we think, and we use it in almost every activity. But most of us cannot imagine approaching the level of world record holder Hiroyuki Goto, who memorised and recited 42,195 digits of pi! Rob Eastaway asks if mere mortals can learn anything useful from such incredible feats of memory, and gives some hints on how to remember numbers.
[ HARDY ] [ PI ] [ RAMANUJAN ] [ SYNAESTHESIA ]
- Here goes the Sun
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ NETWORK ] - Innate geometry
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ NETWORK ] - Lost in music
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ NETWORK ] - Networks: nasty and nice
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ NETWORK ] - Rap: rivalry and chivalry
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ NETWORK ]
- Discovering new primes
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COMPUTER SEARCH ] [ GIMPS ] [ MERSENNE PRIME ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] - Mathematical mysteries: Hailstone sequences
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ HAILSTONE EVALUATOR ] [ HAILSTONE SEQUENCE ] - More hailstones...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ 3N+1 CONJECTURE ] [ COLLATZ PROBLEM ] [ HAILSTONE SEQUENCE ] [ SYRACUSE PROBLEM ] - Mathematical mysteries: the Goldbach conjecture
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ GOLDBACH'S CONJECTURE ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] - The life and numbers of Fibonacci
Fibonacci, famous for the Fibonacci sequence, also introduced the decimal system into Europe.
[ FIBONACCI NUMBER ] [ GOLDEN RATIO ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ LIMIT ] [ SEQUENCE ] - Pushing back Pi
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CALCULATING DIGITS OF PI ] [ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ RANDOMNESS ] - Primes update: success again!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GIMPS ] [ MERSENNE PRIME ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] [ PRIME NUMBER SEARCH ] - Mathematical mysteries: twin primes
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ BRUN'S CONSTANT ] [ TWIN PRIMES CONJECTURE ] - Mathematical mysteries: Goldbach revisited
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ GOLDBACH'S CONJECTURE ] [ GOLDBACH CALCULATOR ] [ HALTING PROBLEM ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] [ SIEVE OF ERATOSTHENES ] - Perilous primes
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GIMPS ] [ MERSENNE PRIME ] [ MERSENNE SEARCH ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] - Looking out for number one
You might think that if you collected together a list of naturally-occurring numbers, then as many of them would start with a 1 as with any other digit, but you'd be quite wrong. Jon Walthoe explains why Benford's Law says otherwise, and why tax inspectors are taking an interest.
[ BENFORD'S LAW ] [ DISTRIBUTION OF DIGITS ] [ FRAUD DETECTION ] [ LOGARITHM ] [ RANDOMNESS ] [ SCALE INVARIANCE ] [ STATISTICS ] [ UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION ] - Chaos in Numberland: The secret life of continued fractions
One of the most striking and powerful means of presenting numbers is completely ignored in the mathematics that is taught in schools, and it rarely makes an appearance in university courses. Yet the continued fraction is one of the most revealing representations of many numbers, sometimes containing extraordinary patterns and symmetries. John D. Barrow explains.
[ CHAOS ] [ CONTINUED FRACTION ] [ CONVERGENCE ] [ GEAR ] [ GOLDEN RATIO ] [ KHINCHIN'S CONSTANT ] [ LEVY'S CONSTANT ] [ PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION ] [ RATIONAL APPROXIMATION ] - Gold for Goldbach
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GOLDBACH'S CONJECTURE ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] - Terrorists' code of honour
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CRYPTOGRAPHY ] [ ENCRYPTION ] [ RSA ] - Woman joins Adams family
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ADAMS PRIZE ] [ DIOPHANTINE EQUATION ] [ ELLIPTIC CURVE ] [ FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM ] [ GENUS ] [ TOPOLOGY ] [ WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS ] - Pi not a piece of cake
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FORMULA FOR PI ] [ NORMAL NUMBER ] [ PI ] - Mathematical mysteries: Transcendental meditation
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ALGEBRAIC NUMBER ] [ CIRCLE-SQUARING ] [ E ] [ IRRATIONAL NUMBER ] [ PI ] [ RATIONAL NUMBER ] [ TRANSCENDENTAL NUMBER ] - Prime time
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ POLYNOMIAL TIME ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] - A whirlpool of numbers
The Riemann Hypothesis is probably the hardest unsolved problem in all of mathematics, and one of the most important. It has to do with prime numbers - the building blocks of arithmetic. Nick Mee, together with Sir Arthur C. Clarke, tells us about the patterns hiding inside numbers.
[ ARTHUR C CLARKE ] [ CRYPTOGRAPHY ] [ FUNDAMENTAL THEOREM OF ARITHMETIC ] [ NUMBER THEORY ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] [ PRIME NUMBER DISTRIBUTION ] [ PRIME NUMBER SPIRAL ] [ RIEMANN HYPOTHESIS ] [ RIEMANN ZETA FUNCTION ] [ ZETA FUNCTION ] - Mind the gap
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CLAY INSTITUTE MILLENNIUM PRIZE PROBLEMS ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] [ RIEMANN HYPOTHESIS ] [ TWIN PRIMES CONJECTURE ] - Mysterious number 6174
6174 is a very mysterious number. Yutaka Nishiyama explains why, and how beautiful mathematical oddities can inspire us to discover new mathematics.
[ 6174 ] [ KAPREKAR'S OPERATION ] [ KERNEL ] [ NUMBER THEORY ] [ SEQUENCE ] - Outer space: Some benefits of irrationality
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ IRRATIONAL NUMBERS ] [ NUMBER THEORY ] - New largest prime discovered!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ] [ GIMPS ] [ MERSENNE PRIMES ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] - Elusive twins
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PRIME NUMBER ] [ TWIN PRIME CONJECTURE ] - Volunteers discover new largest prime
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ] [ GIMPS ] [ MERSENNE PRIME ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] [ PRIME NUMBER SEARCH ] - Secrets of the Universe — where size really does matter
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ALMA ] [ CERN ] [ DARK ENERGY ] [ DARK MATTER ] [ HIGGS ] [ LARGE HADRON COLLIDER ] [ LHC ] - Volunteers find largest prime number yet — again!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GIMPS ] [ PRIME NUMBER ] [ PRIME NUMBER SEARCH ]
- Career interview: Defence analyst
Helen is a defence analyst with the MoD, using her maths skills to help defend the nation. Plus finds out about her career path.
[ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ STATISTICS ] - I'm not paying that!
It's not that long ago that all you needed to run an airline was a few planes and some competent pilots. But now, with more of us zipping around the globe every year and the advent of no frills airlines, keeping an airline competetive has become a complicated business. Christine Currie explains how your airfare is calculated.
[ AIRLINE PRICING ] [ LINEAR PROGRAMMING ] [ OPERATIONAL RESEARCH ] - O.R. shortens kidney queues
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MEDICINE ] [ OPERATIONAL RESEARCH ]
- How maths can make you rich and famous
One million dollars is waiting to be won by anyone who can solve one of the grand mathematical challenges of the 21st century. But be warned...these problems are hard. In the first of two articles, Chris Budd explains how to hit the bigtime.
[ CLAY INSTITUTE MILLENNIUM PRIZE PROBLEMS ] [ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] [ P VERSUS NP ] - Better ways to cut a cake
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FAIR DIVISION ]
- The search for Higgs
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COSMOLOGICAL INFLATION ] [ COSMOLOGY ] [ GROUP THEORY ] [ HIGGS BOSON ] [ HIGGS FIELD ] [ PARTICLE COLLIDER ] [ STANDARD MODEL ] [ TAU NEUTRINO ] [ WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY ] - Tying it all up
Theoretical physicists are searching for a 'Theory of Everything' to reconcile quantum mechanics and relativity - the two great physical theories of the twentieth century. String theory is a current hot favourite, and some of the world's most eminent physicists tell us why.
[ M-THEORY ] [ QUANTUM MECHANICS ] [ STRING THEORY ] [ SUPERSTRING THEORY ] - In a spin
When it comes to the science of the very small, strange things start happening, and our intuition ceases to be a useful guide. Plus finds out about the crazy quantum world, and spin that a politician would die for.
[ DIRAC'S EQUATION ] [ ELECTRON SPIN ] [ QUANTUM COMPUTING ] [ QUANTUM INFORMATION ] [ QUANTUM MECHANICS ] [ QUANTUM SUPERPOSITION ]
- Career profile - Academic Researcher
Find out how an early interest in Mathematics and Physics led Dr Helen Mason to a career in solar studies.
[ HELIOSEISMOLOGY ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS ] - Natural frequencies and music
In the first of two articles, David Henwood discusses the vibrations that can be harnessed by musical instrument makers.
[ DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ] [ FREQUENCY ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] [ MODE ] [ OSCILLATION ] [ SPRING ] - Designing loudspeakers
In his second article, David Henwood explains the role of mathematics in the design of Hi-Fi loudspeakers.
[ DISTORTION ] [ FINITE ELEMENTS ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] [ NAUTILUS LOUDSPEAKER ] - Galloping gyroscopes
If boomerangs are really gyroscopes, then what are gyroscopes? In this article, we explore some more of the physics of gyroscopes, and demonstrate some interesting experiments you can do with them.
[ CENTRIFUGAL FORCE ] [ CIRCULAR MOTION ] [ CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM ] [ CORIOLIS FORCE ] [ FORCE ] [ GYROSCOPE ] [ PRECESSION ] - The dynamic sun
On 11th August 1999 a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from parts of the UK. It will provide a spectacular display, but why is the Sun so interesting? Helen Mason explains.
[ COSINE ] [ DOPPLER SHIFT ] [ ELECTROMAGNETISM ] [ HARMONIC WAVE ] [ HELIOSEISMOLOGY ] [ MAGNETIC FIELD ] [ SINE WAVE ] [ SOLAR ECLIPSE ] [ STANDING WAVE ] [ SUNSPOT ] [ WAVE ] - Radio controlled?
We take reliable radio communications for granted, but accommodating many different users is not easy. Robert Leese explains how the mathematics of colouring graphs can help avoid interference on your mobile phone.
[ ALGORITHM ] [ AM (AMPLITUDE MODULATION) ] [ CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM ] [ ELECTROMAGNETISM ] [ FM (FREQUENCY MODULATION) ] [ FOURIER ANALYSIS ] [ FREQUENCY ] [ GRAPH THEORY ] [ INTERFERENCE ] [ RADIO WAVE ] [ WAVELENGTH ] - Mathematical mysteries: Foucault's pendulum and the eclipse
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM ] [ SOLAR ECLIPSE ] - Old problem, new spin
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ENERGY ] [ EULER'S DISK ] [ FRICTION ] [ MECHANICS ] [ SPIN ] [ TURBULENCE ] [ VISCOSITY ] - Faster than light
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BANDWIDTH THEOREM ] [ DISPERSION ] [ GROUP VELOCITY ] [ INTERFERENCE ] [ PHASE VELOCITY ] [ REFRACTION ] [ SPEED OF LIGHT ] [ WAVE PACKET ] - Light attenuation and exponential laws
Arguably, the exponential function crops up more than any other when using mathematics to describe the physical world. In the first of two articles on physical phenomena which obey exponential laws, Ian Garbett discusses light attenuation - the way in which light decreases in intensity as it passes through a medium.
[ EXPONENTIAL LAW ] [ LAMBERT LAW OF ABSORPTION ] [ LIGHT ATTENUATION ] [ LIMIT ] [ LOGARITHMIC DECAY ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ RADIATION ATTENUATION ] - Radioactive decay and exponential laws
Arguably, the exponential function crops up more than any other when using mathematics to describe the physical world. In the second of two articles on physical phenomena which obey exponential laws, Ian Garbett discusses radioactive decay.
[ CARBON DATING ] [ EXPONENTIAL LAW ] [ LOGARITHMIC DECAY ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ RADIOACTIVE DECAY ] - Light bends the 'wrong' way
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GROUP VELOCITY ] [ LENS ] [ MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS OF ELECTROMAGNETISM ] [ NEGATIVE REFRACTIVE INDEX ] [ PHASE VELOCITY ] [ REFRACTION ] [ REFRACTIVE INDEX ] [ SNELL'S LAW ] [ WAVELENGTH ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] [ THEORETICAL PHYSICS ] - Catching waves with Kip Thorne
What happens when one black hole meets another? Professor Kip Thorne shows us how to eavesdrop on these cosmic events by watching for telltale gravitational waves.
[ BIG BANG ] [ BLACK HOLE ] [ COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION ] [ CURVATURE OF SPACE ] [ GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTOR ] [ GRAVITY ] [ INTERFERENCE ] [ LASER INTERFEROMETRY ] [ SCHWARZCHILD SINGULARITY ] - Folding under pressure
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ENERGY ] [ FORCE ] - In skimming, spin's the thing
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ANGULAR FORCE ] [ ENERGY ] [ KINETIC ENERGY ] [ STONE SKIMMING ] - Faster than a falling bullet...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COSMOLOGY ] [ GENERAL RELATIVITY ] [ GRAVITATIONAL LENSING ] [ GRAVITATIONAL WAVES ] [ GRAVITY ] [ NEWTONIAN MECHANICS ] - Why is the violin so hard to play?
As anyone starting out knows, the violin is a difficult instrument. It takes time before the novice player can expect to produce a musical note at the desired pitch, instead of a whistle, screech or graunch. Jim Woodhouse and Paul Galluzzo explain why.
[ HARMONIC WAVE ] [ HELMHOLTZ VIBRATION ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC ] [ VIBRATION MODES ] - Outer space: A matter of gravity
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ GRAVITY ] [ PHYSICS ] - Fashion gets physical
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BENDING STIFFNESS ] [ DRAPING ] [ FASHION ] [ FOLDING ] [ GRAVITY ] [ MATERIAL PROPERTIES ] - Quake-proof
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ EARTHQUAKE ] [ ENGINEERING ] [ HARMONICS ] [ NATURAL FREQUENCY ] [ TUNED MASS DAMPER ] - Stringent tests
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PHYSICS ] [ STRING THEORY ] - The Nature of Space and Time: An Evening of Speculation
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ASTRONOMY ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ PHYSICS ] [ SPACETIME ] - Doppler detectives
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DOPPLER SHIFT ] [ PHASE VELOCITY ] [ SOUND WAVE ] [ WAVELENGTH ] - New light shed on dark energy
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COSMOLOGICAL INFLATION ] [ COSMOLOGY ] [ EINSTEIN ] [ PHYSICS ] - Spinning in space
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ EINSTEIN ] [ GENERAL RELATIVITY ] [ SOACE EXPLORATION ] - Getting a handle on soap
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PHYSICS ] [ WAVE ] - Spaghetti breakthrough
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PHYSICS ] [ WAVE ] - Split reflections
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CHIRALITY ] [ REFLECTION ] [ REFRACTION ] [ SNELL'S LAW ] [ SYMMETRY ] - Building Newton's nest
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COSMOLOGY ] [ M-THEORY ] [ STRING THEORY ] - How plants halt sands
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT ] [ PHYSICS ] - Winning background research
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BIG BANG ] [ CMB ] [ COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION ] [ COSMOLOGY ] [ ECONOMICS ] [ NOBEL PRIZE ]
- Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ PLUS NEW WRITERS AWARD ] - The Plus new writers award 2006
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PLUS NEW WRITERS AWARD ]
- Mathematics, marriage and finding somewhere to eat
How do you choose a partner? Is it an irrational choice or is it made rationally, based on a mathematical model which analyses the best potential partner you are likely to meet?
[ DECISION THEORY ] [ GOOGOL ] [ OPTIMAL STOPPING ] [ SIMULATION ] [ STRATEGY ] - What a coincidence!
Coincidences are familiar to us all but what are the so-called laws of chance? From coin tossing to freak weather events, Geoffrey Grimmett explains how probability is at the heart of it all.
[ ACTUARIAL MATHEMATICS ] [ BIRTHDAY PROBLEM ] [ COIN-TOSSING ] [ COINCIDENCE ] [ KOLMOGOROV'S AXIOMS OF PROBABILITY THEORY ] [ RANDOMNESS ] [ RUN OF HEADS OR TAILS ] - Monte Carlo Monopoly
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ COMPUTER SIMULATION ] [ MONOPOLY BOARD GAME ] [ MONTE CARLO METHOD ] [ STRATEGY ] - Mathematical mysteries: Getting the most out of life - Part 1
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ GAME OF CHANCE ] [ MAXIMISATION ] [ STRATEGY ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ AVAILABILITY ERROR ] [ DECISION THEORY ] [ RISK ANALYSIS ] - Backgammon, doubling the stakes, and Brownian motion
Backgammon is said to be one of the oldest games in the world. In this article, Jochen Blath and Peter Mörters discuss one particularly interesting aspect of the game - the doubling cube. They show how a model using Brownian motion can help a player to decide when to double or accept a double.
[ BACKGAMMON ] [ BROWNIAN MOTION ] [ DOUBLING CUBE ] [ DOUBLING STRATEGY ] [ INDEPENDENCE ] [ RANDOM WALK ] [ STOCHASTIC PROCESS ] [ STOPPING TIME ] [ STRATEGY ] - Reducing radiotherapy roulette
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MONTE CARLO METHOD ] [ PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION ] [ RANDOM TRIAL ] - Random privacy
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BAYES THEOREM ] [ DATA ANALYSIS ] [ PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION ] - Puzzle page
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ DERANGEMENT ] - Outer space: Independence Day
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ INDEPENDENCE ] [ LITERARY ANALYSIS ] - Outer space: Rugby and Relativity
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ INDEPENDENCE ] [ LITERARY ANALYSIS ] - Coincidence, correlation and chance
How much evidence would you need before buying into a get rich quick scheme? Do high ice cream sales cause shark attacks? And just how likely was it that you were ever born? Andrew Stickland finds out that, when it comes to probability, our instincts can lead us seriously astray.
[ BIAS ] [ CAUSATION ] [ CORRELATION ] [ RANDOMNESS ] [ SURVIVORSHIP FALLACY ] - Thomas Bayes & Mr Zootpooper
The three door problem has become a staple mathematical mindbender, but even if you know the answer, do you really understand it? Phil Wilson lets his imagination run riot in this intergalactic application of Bayes' Theorem.
[ BAYES THEOREM ] [ CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY ] [ THREE DOOR PROBLEM ] - Outer space: Racing certainties
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ GAMBLING ] [ HORSE RACING ] [ ODDS ] - Outer space: Monkey business
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ] - Outer space: A collector's piece
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ PROBABILITY ] [ STATISTICS ] - Let 'em roll
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ DICE ] [ EFRON'S DICE ] [ GAMBLING ] [ PROBABILITY ] [ SCHWENK'S DICE ] [ SICHERMAN DICE ] - The luck of the draw
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BIRTHDAY PROBLEM ] [ FOOTBALL ] [ MATHEMATICS IN SPORT ]
- 1089 and all that
Why do so many people say they hate mathematics, asks David Acheson? The truth, he says, is that most of them have never been anywhere near it, and that mathematicians could do more to change this perception - perhaps by emphasising the element of surprise that so often accompanies mathematics at its best.
[ ELLIPSE ] [ FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM ] [ FOCAL POINTS ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ KEPLER ] [ LEIBNIZ ] [ LINKED PENDULUMS ] [ MATHEMATICS AND MAGIC ] [ PENDULUM ] [ PI ] [ PROOF ] - Omega and why maths has no TOEs
Kurt Gödel, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday next year, showed in 1931 that the power of maths to explain the world is limited: his famous incompleteness theorem proves mathematically that maths cannot prove everything. Gregory Chaitin explains why he thinks that Gödel's incompleteness theorem is only the tip of the iceberg, and why mathematics is far too complex ever to be described by a single theory.
[ BINARY CODE ] [ GöDEL'S INCOMPLETENESS THEOREM ] [ PROOF ]
PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS
- Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] - New Scientist on the web
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ NEW SCIENTIST ] [ ONLINE MATHEMATICS RESOURCES ] - Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ PROBABILITY ] - Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ MILLENNIUM ] [ MILLENNIUM BUG ] [ NUMEROLOGY ] - Fields medals
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FIELDS MEDAL ] [ MATHEMATICS IN FILMS ] - Join NRICH - the online maths club
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS ENRICHMENT ] [ NRICH ] - Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ECLIPSE ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] - Maths adds up
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CAREERS WITH MATHEMATICS ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] - Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ EXAMINATIONS ] [ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ SYLLABUS ] - Editorial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ MATHS YEAR 2000 ] [ STATISTICS ] - Maths Year 2000
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHS YEAR 2000 ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ PUBLIC IMAGE OF MATHEMATICS ] [ REGRESSION TO THE MEAN ] [ USEFULNESS OF MATHEMATICS ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ARROW'S THEOREM ] [ PUBLIC IMAGE OF MATHEMATICS ] [ SOCIAL CHOICE ] [ US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS ] [ VOTING SYSTEMS ] - Career interview: Science communicator
Jenni Barker plots the path from astrophysics to science journalism.
[ SCIENCE JOURNALISM ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] - Maths and magic
Until you understand the basics of functions and algebra, the thought that a number can be predicted is a surprising one. And of course `magic' and `being surprised' are often the same thing. Rob Eastaway shows us how mathemagicians trade off the fact that you can usually predict precisely the outcome of doing something in mathematics, but only if you know the secret beforehand.
[ MAGIC SQUARE ] [ MAGIC TRICK ] [ REPUNITS ] - Maths in the movies
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS IN FILMS ] - Opinion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ EXAMINATIONS ] [ MATHEMATICS ANXIETY ] - And the winner is ...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ABEL PRIZE ] [ FIELDS MEDAL ] [ NOBEL PRIZE ] - Maths on the tube
During World Mathematical Year 2000, a sequence of posters were displayed month by month in the trains of the London Underground aiming to stimulate, fascinate - even infuriate passengers! Keith Moffatt tells us about three of the posters from the series.
[ ADVECTION-DIFFUSION EQUATION ] [ BUTTERFLY EFFECT ] [ CHAOS ] [ DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ] [ DYNAMICAL SYSTEM ] [ FIBONACCI NUMBER ] [ FLUID MECHANICS ] [ GOLDEN RATIO ] [ LORENZ EQUATIONS ] [ METEOROLOGY ] [ STRANGE ATTRACTOR ] - Career interview: Science communicator
Science writer and exhibition researcher Alison Boyle tells Plus about her work creating up-to-the-minute news exhibits at the Science Museum in London.
[ ASTRONOMY ] [ HUBBLE TELESCOPE ] [ PHYSICS ] [ SCIENCE JOURNALISM ] [ SCIENCE MUSEUM ] [ TESSELLATION ] - A Fields of their own
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FIELDS MEDAL ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ NUMBER THEORY ] [ TOPOLOGY ] - More or Less
A new series of More or Less, BBC Radio 4's series devoted to all things numerical, starts on November 12th. Presenter Andrew Dilnot tells Plus about the motivation behind the programme.
[ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - Nobel mathematics
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ASTRONOMY ] [ CHEMISTRY ] [ ECONOMICS ] [ GENETICS ] [ MEDICINE ] [ NOBEL PRIZE ] [ PHYSICS ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ INFORMATION THEORY ] [ INNATE MATHEMATICAL ABILITY ] [ MENTAL ARITHMETIC ] [ SEARCH ENGINE ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ INFORMATION THEORY ] [ INNATE MATHEMATICAL ABILITY ] [ MENTAL ARITHMETIC ] [ PHYSICS ] [ SEARCH ENGINE ] - En-Abeled
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ABEL PRIZE ] [ FIELDS MEDAL ] [ NOBEL PRIZE ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ INFORMATION THEORY ] [ INNATE MATHEMATICAL ABILITY ] [ MENTAL ARITHMETIC ] [ SEARCH ENGINE ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ BEAGLE 2 ] [ CAREERS WITH MATHEMATICS ] [ MARS ] [ SPACE EXPLORATION ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ BIOMETRICS ] [ DATABASE ] [ DATAMINING ] [ IMAGE OF MATHS ] [ NUMERACY ] [ STATISTICS ] [ TREND ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ EINSTEIN ] [ EINSTEIN YEAR ] [ PHYSICS ] [ RAMBERT DANCE COMPANY ] - Pluschat
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ ] - Plus newsletter hits 1000!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ] - Maths on the wall
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS EDUCATION ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] - News just in...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ SCIENCE JOURNALISM ] - Million dollar maths
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PUBLIC IMAGE OF MATHEMATICS ] - Code-breakers, doughnuts, and violins
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CLAY INSTITUTE MILLENNIUM PRIZE PROBLEMS ] [ POINCARE CONJECTURE ] [ P VERSUS NP ] [ RIEMANN HYPOTHESIS ] - A mathematical mystery begins...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CODE ] [ CRYPTOGRAPHY ]
- Quantum uncertainty
Quantum mechanics is the physics of the extremely small. With something so far outside our everyday experience it's not surprising to find mathematics at the heart of it all. But at the quantum scale nothing in life is certain... Peter Landshoff explains.
[ DE BROGLIE RELATION ] [ QUANTUM UNCERTAINTY ] [ SCHRöDINGER EQUATION ] [ WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY ] [ WAVE FUNCTION ] - Light's identity crisis
What is light? Sometimes it seems wave-like and sometimes particle like. See how Einstein applied his theory of relativity to the problem, predicted that photons have no mass and laid the foundations for quantum mechanics.
[ DIFFRACTION ] [ ELECTROMAGNETISM ] [ ENERGY ] [ MOMENTUM ] [ PHOTO-ELECTRIC EFFECT ] [ WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY ] - Why God plays dice
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PARTICLE SPIN ] [ PROBABILITY ] [ QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT ] - Dirac Centennial
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DIRAC'S EQUATION ] [ HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ] [ PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS ]
- Outer space: Is this a record?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ GRAPH ] [ HARMONIC SERIES ] [ WEATHER ]
- Outer space: A sense of proportion
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Regular Item
[ PROPORTIONALITY ] [ STRAIGHT-LINE FIT ] [ STRENGTH ]
- Mission to Mars
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ APHELION ] [ ELLIPSE ] [ EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ] [ KEPLER ] [ KEPLER'S THREE LAWS OF PLANETARY MOTION ] [ MARS ] [ NASA ] [ NEWTON ] [ ORBIT ] [ PERIHELION ] - How not to catch a sunbeam
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ASTRONOMY ] [ LAGRANGE POINT ] [ THREE BODY PROBLEM ]
- What's so special about special relativity?
Most of us are aware that Einstein proved that everything was relative ... or something like that. But we go no further, believing that we aren't clever enough to understand what he did. Hardeep Aiden sets out to persuade readers that they too can understand an idea as elegantly simple as it was original.
[ EINSTEIN ] [ INERTIAL FRAME ] [ MUON ] [ RELATIVE VELOCITY ] [ SPECIAL RELATIVITY ] [ TIME DILATION ] [ TWIN PARADOX ]
- Are the polls right?
The British General Election (May 1997) is an example of how simple mathematical ideas help in understanding information that involves numbers.
[ POLLING ] [ PREDICTION ] [ SAMPLING ERROR ] - Image analysis - a modern application of mathematics
New technology has provided us with some amazing images - satellite images, medical images, even images beamed back from Mars. Julian Stander tells us about the increasing role of statistics in interpreting them.
[ BAYES THEOREM ] [ IMAGE ANALYSIS ] [ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] - A knotty sartorial question
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ KNOT ] [ RANDOM WALK ] - Career interview: Sales forecasting
Helen Thompson works for Sainsbury's Supermarkets as a Sales Forecasting Manager. The Plus team paid her a visit at Drury House on the banks of the Thames in London.
[ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ OPERATIONAL RESEARCH ] - Cars in the next lane really do go faster
Yes, you were right to wish you were in the other lane during this morning's commute! Nick Bostrom tells why we're usually caught in the slow lane.
[ ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE ] [ BAYES THEOREM ] [ CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY ] [ DATA SAMPLING ] [ DIFFUSION ] [ EQUILIBRIUM ] [ ESTIMATION ] [ OBSERVATION SELECTION EFFECT ] [ THERMODYNAMICS ] - Population ex-explosion?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MALTHUS ] [ POPULATION GROWTH ] [ STATISTICAL PREDICTION ] - Maths in the dock
Chemists John Watling and Allen Thomas talk to Plus about the vital role of maths in presenting criminal evidence.
[ DEGREE OF FIT ] [ FORENSIC MATHEMATICS ] [ STATISTICAL SAMPLING ] [ TERNARY PLOT ] - Career interview: Statistical consulting
John Henstridge and Jodie Thompson tell Plus about life as consultant statisticians, modelling real-world problems in areas as diverse as the shipping industry and water rationing.
[ COMPUTER SCIENCE ] [ STATISTICAL CONSULTING ] [ SURVEY ] - Beyond reasonable doubt
In 1999 solicitor Sally Clark was found guilty of murdering her two baby sons. Highly flawed statistical arguments may have been crucial in securing her conviction. As her second appeal approaches, Plus looks at the case and finds out how courts deal with statistics.
[ BAYES THEOREM ] [ CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY ] - One bug, two bugs, three bugs, four...
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ STATISTICAL DISTRIBUTION ] [ STATISTICAL ESTIMATION ] - The best medicine?
To make hard decisions, you need hard facts. Medical statistics can help us to decide what treatment to look for when we are ill, and to estimate our chances of recovery.
[ CLINICAL TRIAL ] [ CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY ] [ MEDICAL STATISTICS ] [ META-ANALYSIS ] - Career interview: Medical statistician
Ever since the thalidomide tragedy, governments have realised the importance of a strict licensing regime for new drugs. Medical statistician Robert Hemmings explains how his work for the Medicines Control Agency helps to safeguard the health of the nation.
[ MEDICAL STATISTICS ] - Can cancer be cured?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ] [ MEDICAL STATISTICS ] [ STATISTICAL DISTRIBUTION ] [ STATISTICAL ESTIMATION ] - Altimeters, accidents and air traffic controllers
Geoff Wilson is an air traffic controller for the Royal Air Force. Recently back from Kabul in Afghanistan, he tells Plus how logical thinking under pressure is crucial in his job.
[ MEDICAL STATISTICS ] - GM trials come a cropper
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ FOOD ENGINEERING ] [ HYPOTHESIS TESTING ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ NULL HYPOTHESIS ] - Could maths have caught Shipman?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ NORMAL DISTRIBUTION ] [ QUALITY CONTROL ] [ STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL ] - All about averages
Did you know that you can't average averages? Or that Paris is rainier than London ... but it rains more in London than in Paris? Andrew Stickland explores the dangers that face the unwary when using a single number to summarise complex data.
[ AVERAGE ] [ CORRELATION ] [ MEAN ] [ MEDIAN ] [ OUTLIER ] [ PARADOX ] [ PROBABILITY ] [ SIMPSON'S PARADOX ] [ STATISTICS ] - Damn lies
Plus Online Maths Magazine: Feature Article
[ AVERAGE ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ MEAN ] [ MEDIAN ] [ PROBABILITY ] [ STATISTICS ] - Career interview: Government Statistician
Emily Poskett works as a government statistician for the Department for International Development. With lots of travel and the opportunity to make a real difference in poorer countries, her job is far more than just number crunching.
[ STATISTICS ] - United Kingdom - twelve points
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ STATISTICS ] - Cat count
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BIOLOGY ] [ MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ] [ POPULATION ESTIMATION ] - Seeking truth with statistics
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DNA EVIDENCE ] [ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ PROSECUTOR'S FALLACY ] - Monitoring the monitors
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ] - Who do you trust?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ OFFICIAL STATISTICS ] - Body count
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ MATHEMATICS IN THE MEDIA ] [ STATISTICS ]
- Symmetry rules
Everyone knows what symmetry is, and the ability to spot it seems to be hard-wired into our brains. Mario Livio explains how not only shapes, but also laws of nature can be symmetrical, and how this aids our understanding of the universe.
[ ELECTROMAGNETISM ] [ GEOMETRY ] [ PHYSICS ] [ RELATIVITY ] [ SYMMETRY ] [ SYMMETRY OPERATIONS ] [ WEAK FORCE ]
- Career interview: Theoretical Physics Researcher
Francesco Mezzadri from Italy and Nina Snaith from Canada are PhD students in Applied Mathematics at the University of Bristol. They are also affiliated with Hewlett Packard's BRIMS Laboratory. PASS Maths went to visit them there.
[ ELECTRONICS ] [ QUANTUM CHAOS THEORY ] - Stephen Hawking's 60 years in a nutshell
Plus is very proud to present Professor Stephen Hawking's own Birthday Symposium address.
[ BIG BANG ] [ BLACK HOLE ] [ CAUCHY SURFACE ] [ COSMIC CENSORSHIP ] [ COSMOLOGY ] [ ENTROPY ] [ GENERAL RELATIVITY ] [ GRAVITY ] [ INFLATION ] [ M-THEORY ] [ QUANTUM GRAVITY ] [ SINGULARITY THEORY ] [ STRING THEORY ] - Roger Penrose: A Knight on the tiles
Will we ever be able to make computers that think and feel? If not, why not? And what has all this got to do with tiles? Plus talks to Sir Roger Penrose about all this and more.
[ APERIODIC TILING ] [ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ] [ COMPLEX NUMBER ] [ GRAND UNIFIED THEORY ] [ HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS ] [ NON-ALGORITHMIC THOUGHT ] [ NON-RECURSIVE MATHEMATICS ] [ QUANTUM MECHANICS ] [ TESSELLATION ] [ TURING TEST ] - Looking at life with Gerardus 't Hooft
Nobel Prizewinning Physicist Professor Gerardus 't Hooft has always been fascinated by the mathematical mysteries of nature. He tells Plus about his early life, and what our Universe might really be like.
[ GAME OF LIFE ] [ GRAND UNIFIED THEORY ] [ KNOT ] [ PARTICLE PHYSICS ] - Happy Birthday Stephen Hawking!
This issue of Plus is a special, marking the occasion of Stephen Hawking's 60th birthday. Plus attended his BIG BANG ] [ BLACK HOLE ] [ COSMOLOGY ] [ CURVATURE OF SPACE ] [ GENERAL RELATIVITY ] [ GRAND UNIFIED THEORY ] [ GRAVITY ] [ QUANTUM MECHANICS ] [ TIME TRAVEL ] [ WORMHOLE ] - Happy Birthday Stephen Hawking!
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ BIG BANG ] [ BLACK HOLE ] [ COSMOLOGY ] [ CURVATURE OF SPACE ] [ GENERAL RELATIVITY ] [ GRAND UNIFIED THEORY ] [ GRAVITY ] [ QUANTUM MECHANICS ] [ TIME TRAVEL ] [ WORMHOLE ] - A conversation with Freeman Dyson
The 2003 Dirac Lecturer, distinguished physicist Freeman Dyson, tells Plus why he is an optimist, what makes life interesting and why old-fashioned maths is what you need for physics.
[ ETHICS OF SCIENCE ] [ FREEMAN DYSON ] [ SECOND WORLD WAR ] [ TECHNOLOGY ]
- A new time machine
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ PHYSICS ] [ QUANTUM MECHANICS ] [ THEORETICAL PHYSICS ] [ TIMETRAVEL ]
- In space, do all roads lead to home?
Is the Universe finite, with an edge, or infinite, with no edges? Or is it even stranger: finite but with no edges? It sounds far-fetched but the mathematical theory of topology makes it possible, and nobody yet knows the truth. Janna Levin tells us more.
[ COMPACT UNIVERSE ] [ CONNECTEDNESS ] [ COSMOLOGY ] [ CURVATURE ] [ KLEIN BOTTLE ] [ MöBIUS STRIP ] [ TILING ] - Maths aMazes
C. J. Budd and C. J. Sangwin show us how to create mazes, and explain why mazes and networks have much in common. In fact the study of mazes and labyrinths takes us into the dark territory of murder, suicide, adultery, passion, intrigue, religion and conquest...
[ BRIDGES OF KONIGSBERG ] [ LABYRINTH ] [ MAZE ] [ MAZE SEED ] [ NETWORK ] [ NETWORK TOPOLOGY ] [ SOLVING A MAZE ] - Why knot: knots, molecules and stick numbers
Knots crop up all over the place, from tying a shoelace to molecular structure, but they are also elegant mathematical objects. Colin Adams asks when is a molecule knot a molecule? and what happens if you try to build a knot out of sticks?
[ CROSSING ] [ KNOT ] [ KNOTS IN CHEMISTRY ] [ STICK NUMBER ] - Proof for Poincaré?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ CLAY INSTITUTE MILLENNIUM PRIZE PROBLEMS ] [ POINCARE CONJECTURE ] [ SIMPLE CONNECTEDNESS ] - Mathematical millionaire?
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ ] [ CLAY INSTITUTE MILLENNIUM PRIZE PROBLEMS ] [ FIELDS MEDAL ] [ GEOMETRISATION CONJECTURE ] [ POINCARE CONJECTURE ]
- Travel-time maps — transforming our view of transport
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ DATA ANALYSIS ] [ DATA HANDLING ] [ VISUALISATION ]
- Tsunami
The tsunami of December 26th 2004 has focused the world's attention on this terrifying consequence of an underwater earthquake. Michael McIntyre explores the underlying wave mathematics.
[ TSUNAMI ] [ WAVE ] [ WEATHER ] [ WEATHER FORECASTING ] - Troubled minds and perfect turbulence
Plus Online Maths Magazine: News Story
[ GEOMETRY ] [ PHYSICS ] [ VANGOGH ] [ WEATHER ]
