Articles

Arithmetic billiards

Need to find the least common multiple or greatest common divisor of two numbers? A billiard table of the right proportions holds the answers!

The maths of randomness

Randomness is surprisingly hard to define. Fortunately the mathematical language we use to describe it is beautifully well defined.

The maths of randomness: universality

The second guiding principle in probability theory is more subtle – universality.

The maths of randomness: symmetry

Symmetry is one of the two guiding principles in understanding probabilities – if different outcomes are equivalent they should have the same probability.

The two envelopes problem solved

Here's a resolution for one of probability theory's most famous paradoxes.

Error correcting codes

Learn about magical mathematical methods for fixing errors on the fly.

Genetics: Nature's digital code

Is nature using digital tools to deal with genetic information?

A very useful pandemic

Cambridge researchers, the BBC, and thousands of citizen scientists have created a revolutionary infectious disease data set.

Maths in a minute: Graphs and the degree sum formula

Double counting proves a neat result in graph theory.

The unreasonable relationship between mathematics and physics

Can physics do for maths what maths has done for physics?

Stephen Hawking: Milestones of a life in physics

A quick tour to some of Hawking's most significant achievements.

Maths in a minute: Dark energy

What is dark energy and how do we know it's there?