List by Author: Marianne Freiberger

The knight's tour

Can you move a knight on a chessboard so that it visits every square exactly once? Euler was one of the first to analyse this problem systematically, but some questions about it are still open today.

The bridges of Königsberg

Can you find a path through on this city map that crosses every bridge exactly once? Euler's answer to this problem started off the filed of graph theory.

Primes without 7s

James Maynard, one of the prize winners at the European Congress of Mathematics, is counting primes that don't have 7s in them. But why?

What do you think?

Mathematicians explore how opinions spread through a society.

Blood, oil and water

Sara Zahedi has won a prestigious prize at the European Congress of Maths. Your future medical diagnoses, and even the welfare of sea life, may depend on her work.

Citizen scientists count sunflower spirals

Does the famous Fibonacci sequence always appear in sunflower seed heads?

A ridiculously short introduction to some very basic quantum mechanics

Some general ideas in very few words and without equations.

Why quantum mechanics?

Why did physicists at the beginning of the 20th century feel they needed a new — and strange — theory?

Snakes and adders

How can an electronic device fed on a diet of 0s and 1s perform complex tasks? We explore the workings of computers using an example.

Stop taking the p

Why a time-honoured statistical tool is becoming problematic.

Andrew Wiles wins Abel Prize!

One of the greatest honours in maths has been awarded for the proof of Fermat's last theorem.

Chaos from order

How simples rules can result in very complex outcomes.