Math
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Math
Losing to Win
It’s a gift to born losers. Researchers have demonstrated that two games of chance, each guaranteed to give a player a predominance of losses in the long term, can add up to a winning outcome if the player alternates randomly between the two games. This striking new result in game theory is now called Parrondo’s […]
- Math
Packing spheres around a sphere
A mathematician has proved that the optimal arrangement of 12 identical spheres around and touching a 13th is a highly symmetric pattern based on the 12-faced geometric shape known as the dodecahedron.
- Math
A fair deal for housemates
A new mathematical recipe for fair division allows people to resolve disputes over the splitting up of rent, goods, or even burdensome chores.
- Math
Math Prizes: Honors for connecting number theory, geometry, and algebra
Fields Medals were awarded to two mathematicians, Laurent Lafforgue and Vladimir Voevodsky, who forged new links between different branches of mathematics.
- Math
Probabilities in Bingo
One of the little pleasures of our annual winter vacation is an evening Bingo party. After a day of sledding and cross-country skiing, it’s relaxing to indulge in a social game that requires minimal thought, affords young and old the same chance of winning, and has a strong element of suspense. To play Bingo, each […]
- Math
Troublesome Weather Trends
Unlike the day or year, the week isn’t tied to any naturally recurring phenomenon. When meteorologists detect a trend that follows a weekly rhythm, they suspect that human activities–and the 5-day work week–are responsible. In 1998, researchers at Arizona State University in Tempe reported that daily oceanic rainfall shows a weekly precipitation cycle across a […]
- Math
Troublesome Weather Trends
Unlike the day or year, the week isn’t tied to any naturally recurring phenomenon. When meteorologists detect a trend that follows a weekly rhythm, they suspect that human activities–and the 5-day work week–are responsible. In 1998, researchers at Arizona State University in Tempe reported that daily oceanic rainfall shows a weekly precipitation cycle across a […]
- Math
Testing for Divisibility
The crisp new dollar bill that I have just taken from my wallet bears the serial number 24598176. It’s easy to tell that the number is exactly divisible by 2 but not by 5. Is it divisible by 3? by 4? by 11? In a 1962 Scientific American article, Martin Gardner noted that during the […]
- Math
Prepping for Calculus
The “Calculus Page” Web site provides links to a variety of resources for calculus students and teachers, from problem sets with step-by-step solutions to tips on preparing for exams. Linked sites offer online tutorials and courses, sample exams, animated examples, mathematical software, and information on calculus competitions and the history of calculus. Go to: http://www.calculus.org/
- Math
Jazzing Up Euclid’s Algorithm
Earlier this year, the journal Computing in Science & Engineering (CISE) published a list of the top 10 algorithms of the century (see http://computer.org/cise/articles/Top_Algorithms.htm). “Computational algorithms are probably as old as civilization,” Francis Sullivan of the Institute for Defense Analyses’ Center for Computing Sciences in Bowie, Md. noted in an editorial in the January/February issue […]
- Math
A Minimal Winter’s Tale
The organizers of the Breckenridge snow sculpture championships in Colorado must be getting used to having a mathematical element in their annual competition. A simple version of Enneper’s surface just before (above) and just after (below) it self-intersects. The award-winning snow sculpture of Enneper’s surface. For the second year in a row, a team assembled […]
- Math
Logic in the Blocks
Sliding-block puzzles can be surprisingly difficult to solve and can even serve as theoretical models of computation.
