Content about “
history of mathematics

Article

The 36 officers problem

Euler may not have cracked this problem completely, but it led to a lot of important work, including on what we today know as sudoku.
Article

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.
Article
Bridges of Königsberg

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.

Collection

Five of Euler's best

Five favourite problems inspired by Leonhard Euler, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Article

Why quantum mechanics?

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

Analysing Ada

Ada Lovelace, born 200 years ago this month, is hailed the world's first computer programmer. What exactly was her contribution to computer science?
Collection

Celebrating general relativity

A hundred years ago, on 25 November 1915, Einstein first presented his general theory of relativity. We explore this famous theory and what it says about the world we live in.
News story
equation

Ramanujan surprises again

A fascinating discovery sheds new light on the work of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.