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Maths in a minute: Limits
Find out about the beautifully intuitive concept that lies at the heart of calculus.
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Maths in a minute: N-bonacci sequences
You may have heard about the Fibonacci sequence, but have you heard of N-bonacci sequences?
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The real numbers and Cauchy sequences
We take the real numbers for granted, but what are they really?
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Maths in a minute: Compound interest and e
Compound interest is the curse of debt and the blessing of saving. Find out how it works and what it has to do with one of the most important numbers in mathematics.
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The Basel problem
This problem about an infinite sum has a surprising answer.
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Infinity or -1/12?
What do you get when you add up all the natural numbers 1+2+3+4+ ... ? Not -1/12! We explore a strange result that has been making the rounds recently.
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How to add up quickly
The number pi can be expressed beautifully in terms of infinite sums. For practical purposes though, these sums are rather disappointing: they converge slowly, so you need to sum a large number of terms to get accurate estimates of pi. Here's a clever way to make them converge faster.
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No limits for Usain
Usain Bolt, the "fastest man on the planet", aims to get his 100 metre world record of 9.58 seconds down to 9.40 seconds. What has mathematics got to say about this quest?
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A disappearing number
Mathematics takes to the stage with A disappearing number, a work by Complicite, inspired by the mathematical collaboration of Hardy and Ramanujan. Rachel Thomas went to see the play, and explains some of the maths. You can also read her interview with Victoria Gould about how the show was created.
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An infinite series of surprises
Infinite series occupy a central and important place in mathematics. C. J. Sangwin shows us how eighteenth-century mathematician Leonhard Euler solved one of the foremost infinite series problems of his day.
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Mathematical mysteries: Zeno's Paradoxes
The paradoxes of the philosopher Zeno, born approximately 490 BC in southern Italy, have puzzled mathematicians, scientists and philosophers for millennia. Although none of his work survives today, over 40 paradoxes are attributed to him which appeared in a book he wrote as a defense of the philosophies of his teacher Parmenides.