Articles

From dust to us

Where planets are born is not necessarily where they will stay…

The Fibonacci sequence: A brief introduction

Anything involving bunny rabbits has to be good.

Introducing the Klein bottle

A Klein bottle can't hold any liquid because it doesn't have an inside. How do you construct this strange thing and why would you want to?

Maths in a minute: Writing infinite sums

How to write a sum that's infinitely long.

When things get weird with infinite sums

What is 1-1+1-1+1-1+...? How infinite sums challenge our notion of arithmetic.

Mathematical mysteries: Hailstone sequences

Here's an easy game that leads you straight to an unsolved question in maths.

Writing the unwritable: up-arrow notation

How to write down unimaginably large numbers using just a few symbols.

The Sun, the Moon and trigonometry

A 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 numbers

Why 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.

Outer space: Where to stand to look at statues

John D. Barrow tells us how to get the best view!