One of the beautiful things about maths is that every concept is part of a bigger picture — a picture that grows over time, transcends traditional boundaries, and often informs a range of real-world applications. The collections below aim to present some of these mathematical jigsaws by bringing together content exploring specific topics from different perspectives and at varying levels of depth.
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Who's watching: Context is everything

Imagine your weight depended on the colour of your underwear! Something quite similar may be happening when you are measuring things in quantum physics. Find out more here...
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Fantastic Fibonacci

Bees do it, rabbits do it, and luckily, we humans can do it too: explore the famous Fibonacci sequence!
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gingerbread house

The 2016 Plus advent calendar

In this busy time why not put your feet up and learn some maths in just a few minutes with this year's Plus advent calendar. Now what's behind today's door?

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Who's watching? The physics of observers

Traditionally, observers play no special role in physics. Like bird watchers in a perfect hide, we observe the outcome of experiments, or gaze at the stars through our telescopes, taking no part in the action. Modern physics, however, tells a different story ... find out more with these articles and videos.
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Watch and learn?

Can the very act of observing something change what's being observed? This series of articles and videos explores some basic questions about the role of the observers in physics.
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Stuff happens: What's happening?

We all know what we mean when we say that something has happened — well, all except for theoretical physicists. That's because the notion of a "happening" becomes fuzzy when you go down to the foundations of the science. Find out more with these articles and videos.
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Stuff happens: Time in a block universe

Physics tells us that we live in a block universe, containing all of the past and all of the future. What does this perspective mean for our understanding of time, events, and free will?
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Five of Euler's best

Five favourite problems inspired by Leonhard Euler, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
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Stuff happens: From finance to fundamental physics

Current physical theories suggest that beautiful symmetries underly the fundamental particles and forces of nature. We describe those symmetries using an analogy from economics, and even rediscover the famous Higgs boson.
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Do we live in a matrix?

Do we live in a matrix? What does physics tell us about reality? Are reality and information one and the same? Do things only exist if they are perceived? Find out some the answers to these fascinating questions.
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Who killed Schrödinger's cat?

Schrödinger's cat has come to symbolise everything that is strange about the famously strange theory of quantum mechanics. Here's an accessible introduction to one of the weirdest, yet most successful, physical theories we have.
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Stuff happens: Laws versus outcomes

How can it be that our wonderfully complex world is governed by a few comparatively simple laws of nature? Find out with this collection of articles and videos.