Articles

Quantifying OccamAn idea called Occam's razor states that the simplest answer is always the best. But is this really true? Computer scientist Noson Yanofsky is trying to find out, applying Kolmogorov complexity to a branch of mathematics known as category theory.

Monsters, moonshine and shadowsNot just the ingredients for a fairy tale...

Making Two Tribes fairerIn the TV game show Two Tribes teams can have unequal sizes. Is that fair?

Folding fractionsFolding a piece of paper in half might be easy, but what about into thirds, fifths, or thirteenths? Here is a simple and exact way for fold any fraction, all thanks to the maths of triangles.

Maths in a minute: What's average?Why the humble average can be grossly misleading.

Good-looking gibberishHow to approximate the English language using maths.

What is infinity?Take a trip into the never-ending.

How long can we survive a zombie invasion?

Can a mathematical model of zombies' movements allow the human race to survive impending doom?

Who's looking at you?Observers are, of course, vital in physics: we test our theories by comparing them to our observations. But in cosmology, as Jim Hartle explains, we could be one of many possible observers in the Universe and knowing which one we are is vital in testing our theories.

Two-faced conic sectionsPlay with our applets to explore the conic sections and their different definitions.

Steady on, EinsteinTo celebrate the release of more English translations of Einstein's papers, we revisit one of his previously unknown models of the Universe.

From dust to usWhere planets are born is not necessarily where they will stay…