Ivars Peterson

All Stories by Ivars Peterson

  1. Math

    Artful Routes

    Finding the shortest routes linking cities can also produce intricate continuous-line portraits.

  2. Math

    Sphere Worlds

    Painting on spheres offers a novel perspective on the world.

  3. Math

    Pennies in a Tray

    Packing pennies in circular trays can lead to intriguing mathematical complexities.

  4. Math

    Cruise Control and Traffic Flow

    Adaptive cruise control can help smooth out traffic flow.

  5. Math

    Cruise Control and Traffic Flow

    Adaptive cruise control can help smooth out traffic flow.

  6. Math

    The Iced Foot Effect

    Does calling a timeout as a defensive strategy to "ice" a kicker in football actually reduce the chances of a successful field goal kick?

  7. Math

    Football’s Overtime Bias

    The coin toss appears to play a significant role in deciding the winner in pro football's sudden-death overtime.

  8. Math

    Squaring Circles

    Cutting a circle into pieces and reassembling the fragments to form a square is a tricky proposition.

  9. Math

    Young Gauss

    Mathematical anecdotes don't always tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

  10. Math

    Randomness, Risk, and Financial Markets

    A novel measure of disorder in a sequence of numbers can provide insights into financial markets.

  11. Math

    Proof by Computer

    Using computers to help prove theorems raises question about checking proofs.

  12. Math

    Euler’s Sums of Powers

    Investigating sums of powers has a long history, going back to Fermat and Euler.