Imaging maths - Inside the Klein bottle

September 2003

Mirror image and orientability

If you move this face around the Möbius band, it returns as its mirror image (and upside-down). This means that the Möbius band is non-orientable.

Maths in a minute

Want facts and want them fast? Our Maths in a minute series explores key mathematical concepts in just a few words.

Happy birthday Quicksort!

Next month sees the 60th birthday of a famous algorithm called Quicksort. We explore its origin, its workings, and some other work of its inventor Tony Hoare.
Complex square roots

How to take the square root of a complex number — and discover a beautiful new surface in the process.
Will the virus escape the vaccines?

Can the virus that causes COVID-19 mutate into a vaccine-resistant strain? And if yes, what would this mean for our vaccination strategy?
The shower equation: Dealing with delay

Many processes, including climate change and the spread of COVID-19, involve a delay. Here's a beautiful equation designed to model such processes.
The physics of language

Can physics shed new light on understanding language? An exciting new approach that brings together theoretical physics, mathematics and computer science might give us a new way to capture what makes a language unique.