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earth shown from space

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.

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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.
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Editorial

  • Plus new writers award - Maths is the language of the universe, so what have you got to say?
  • Reader's corner - 6174 and other mysterious numbers.
  • World Cup maths - How Plus can help you with your football.
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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.
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Chaos is not a desk toy

Physicists create a quantum Newton's cradle - and witness an absence of chaos for the first time.