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Article
Games people play
Combinatorial Game Theory is a powerful tool for analysing mathematical games. Lewis Dartnell explains how the technique can be used to analyse games such as Twentyone and Nim, and even some chess endgames.
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Editorial
- What is maths for? - What do we hope people will know after studying maths at school?
- New Plus posters! - Find out how you can get hold of your own copy of our brilliant new poster!
- Specially for students - This issue of Plus brings you the first of an occasional series expecially for use in the classroom.
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Imaging maths - Unfolding polyhedra
Not only are paper models of geometric shapes beautiful and intriguing, but they also allow us to visualise and understand some important geometric constructions. Konrad Polthier tells us about the gentle art of paper folding.
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Making the grade
Calculus is a collection of tools, such as differentiation and integration, for solving problems in mathematics which involve "rates of change" and "areas". In the first of two articles aimed specially at students meeting calculus for the first time, Chris Sangwin tells us about these tools - without doubt, the some of the most important in all of mathematics.
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The prime number lottery
Marcus du Sautoy begins a two part exploration of the greatest unsolved problem of mathematics: The Riemann Hypothesis. In the first part, we find out how the German mathematician Gauss, aged only 15, discovered the dice that Nature used to chose the primes.
News story
Near miss or normal?
Is maths succeeding in putting astronomical threats in perspective?
News story
Calling all code crackers
Fame, glory, and more importantly prizes are on offer in the National Cipher Challenge.
News story
Just a little turbulence
Can researchers solve the mathematics of turbulence at the smallest scale?
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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.
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Outer space: Independence Day
Human beings are famously prone to error, and proof-readers are, after all, only human. But who picks up the errors a proof-reader misses? John D. Barrow challenges readers to estimate the errors that aren't found from the errors that are.
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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.