Articles

Writing the unwritable: up-arrow notationHow to write down unimaginably large numbers using just a few symbols.
The Sun, the Moon and trigonometryA little trig helps to find the relative distance to the Sun and Moon.
In the beginning…Bob Wald tells us why probabilities are important in cosmology.
Ebola: Evidence from numbersWhy maths is an important tool in the fight against Ebola.
So you think you can add up?Why do we add fractions the way we do? A very close look at addition reveals the answer — and it also works for negative numbers.
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Outer space: Where to stand to look at statuesJohn D. Barrow tells us how to get the best view!
Solving quadratics in picturesHow to derive the famous quadratic formula from pictures, just like the Babylonians did.
Maths in a minute: Euclid's fourth axiomEuclid's fourth axiom says that all right angles are equal. But isn't that obvious?
Maths in a minute: Euclid's axiomsFive basic facts from the father of geometry.
How many melodies are there?Given there's a finite number of notes on a scale, can we still find a brand new melody? Perhaps they've all been written already!
The limits of informationWhy there is a limit to how much better computer chips can get and what it's got to do with black holes.
Black holes: Paradox regainedIn 2004 Stephen Hawking famously conceded that black holes do not devour all information when they swallow matter — seemingly resolving the black hole information paradox that had perplexed physicists for decades. But some argue that the paradox remains open and we must abandon our simple picture of spacetime to unravel it.