List by Author: the Plus team

What is a square?

If a shape has equal sides with 90 degree angles between them then it's a square, right? Well, not quite...

Triangular number patterns

There are triangular numbers hiding all over the standard multiplication table! Find out how to discover them in this article!

John Barrow: stories of the Universe

We remember the brilliant cosmologist, mathematician and science communicator, John D. Barrow.

Perfectly even

After 2000 years of searching we only know of 51 perfect numbers and they're all even. What else do and don't we know about these rare and precious jewels of maths?

Perfectly odd

Nobody has ever found an odd perfect number. So do they exist at all and, if yes, what do they look like?

Andrew Wiles: what does it feel like to do maths?

We were very excited to meet Andrew Wiles this summer! In this interview and videos he tells us what it was like to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, and what it feels like to do maths.

What is a black hole – mathematically?

Pau Figueras explains how Einstein's theories predicted the existence of black holes, and how to describe them mathematically.

What is a black hole – physically?

Small, dark, and very hard to see. This and far more indepth answers to every question you ever wanted to ask about black holes.

The longitude problem

How longitude presented one of the greatest problems in history.

Latitude by the stars

Why the North Star tells you your latitude.

Finding your place in the world

What are global coordinates?

Sexual statistics

David Spiegelhalter's new book Sex by numbers takes a statistical peek into the nation's bedrooms. In this interview he tells us some of his favourite stories from the book. Read the article or watch the video!