
Content about “ navigation
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Talking to young researchers: Briane Paul Samson
In this short video Briane Paul Samson tells us about his work developing intelligent algorithms to help us navigate on busy roads.

Maths in a minute: Maths and navigation

The longitude problem

Latitude by the stars

Finding your place in the world

Lost but lovely: The haversine

Conic section hide and seek

Finding your way home without knowing where you are
Foraging ants have a hard life, embarking on long and arduous trips several times a day, until they drop dead from exhaustion. The trips are not just long, they also follow complex zig-zag paths. So how do ants manage to find their way back home? And how do they manage to do so along a straight line? Their secret lies in a little geometry.

Flying home with quantum physics
Quantum mechanics is usually associated with weird and counterintuitve phenomena we can't observe in real life. But it turns out that quantum processes can occur in living organisms, too, and with very concrete consequences. Some species of birds use quantum mechanics to navigate. And as Plus found out at a recent conference, studying these little creatures' quantum compass may help us achieve the holy grail of computer science: building a quantum computer.

How do insects find their way home?
