algebra

New perspectives in symmetry

What is group theory and why is it such an exciting area of maths? Two experts explain.

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Seeing proof

Having trouble with algebra? Then try these visual proofs of two well-known algebraic identities.

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Solving quadratics in pictures

How to derive the famous quadratic formula from pictures, just like the Babylonians did.

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Thomas Harriot: A lost pioneer
It's International Year of Astronomy and all eyes are on Galileo Galilei, whose astronomical observations 400 years ago revolutionised our understanding of the Universe. But few people know that Galileo wasn't the first to build a telescope and turn it on the stars. That honour falls to a little-known mathematician called Thomas Harriot, who excelled in many other ways too. Anna Faherty takes us on a tour of his work.
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Editorial

The Plus anniversary year — A word from the editors

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A tale of two curricula: Euler's algebra text book
In the fourth and final part of our series celebrating 300 years since Leonhard Euler's birth, we let Euler speak for himself. Chris Sangwin takes us through excerpts of Euler's algebra text book and finds that modern teaching could have something to learn from Euler's methods.
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An enormous theorem: the classification of finite simple groups
Winner of the general public category. Enormous is the right word: this theorem's proof spans over 10,000 pages in 500 journal articles and no-one today understands all its details. So what does the theorem say? Richard Elwes has a short and sweet introduction.
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The power of groups
Groups are some of the most fundamental objects in maths. Take a system of interacting objects and strip it to the bone to see what makes it tick, and very often you're faced with a group. Colva Roney-Dougal takes us into their abstract world and puzzles over a game of Solitaire.
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Emmy Noether: Against the odds
A brief look at Emmy Noether's challenging journey to become one of the twentieth century's great mathematicians.
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Three-digit numbers
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