click here for the plus home page
© 1997-2009, Millennium Mathematics Project, University of Cambridge.
Permission is granted to print and copy this page on paper for non-commercial use. For other uses, including electronic redistribution, please contact us.
Do you know what's good for you?
icon

Understand the maths behind health and medicine

Careers with maths
icon

Gavin Harper is a mathematician working right at the heart of genetics

A favourite from the archive...
Subscribe to our RSS feed:
AddThis Feed Button subscribe to our RSS feed
 
March 2010
Tags

axiom

Feature icon

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...

Tags: proof : philosophy of mathematics : axiom : Fermat's Last Theorem : four-colour theorem : minimal criminal


Feature icon

Richard Elwes continues his investigation into Cantor and Cohen's work. He investigates the continuum hypothesis, the question that caused Cantor so much grief.

Tags: history of mathematics : axiom : logic : set theory : Zermelo-Fraenkel axiomatisation of set theory : hilbert problems : infinity : continuum hypothesis


Feature icon

What's the nature of infinity? Are all infinities the same? And what happens if you've got infinitely many infinities? In this article Richard Elwes explores how these questions brought triumph to one man and ruin to another, ventures to the limits of mathematics and finds that, with infinity, you're spoilt for choice.

Tags: history of mathematics : axiom : logic : set theory : Russell's Paradox : Zermelo-Fraenkel axiomatisation of set theory : infinity : axiom of choice


Feature icon

Great minds spark controversy. This is something you'd expect to hear about a great philosopher or artist, but not about a mathematician. Get ready to bin your stereotypes as Rebecca Morris describes some controversial ideas of the great mathematician David Hilbert.

Tags: history of mathematics : axiom : Euclidean geometry : logic : hilbert problems : incompleteness theorem


Feature icon

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.

Tags: proof : axiom : Euclid's Elements : deduction : premise


Feature icon

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.

Tags: proof : axiom : calculus : Russell's Paradox : rational number : irrational number : paradox : Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem : deduction : induction


Feature icon

Human versus machine: who's better at proving theorems?

Tags: proof : philosophy of mathematics : axiom : four-colour theorem : computer science