Mathematics

Magazine articles on mathematics.

Old Articles: <Older 141-150 Newer>

Science News January 24, 2004 Ivars Peterson	Folding Paper in Half -- Twelve Times You can't fold a sheet of paper in half more than seven or eight times, no matter how large the sheet or thin the paper may be. How often have you heard that statement? Is seven or eight folds a reasonable rule of thumb for paperfolding in general?
Science News January 10, 2004 Ivars Peterson	Splitting Terrorist Cells How can you tell if enough members of a terrorist cell have been captured or killed so there's a high probability that the cell can no longer carry out an attack? A mathematical model of terrorist organizations might provide some clues.
Science News January 3, 2004 Ivars Peterson	Perfect Magic Cubes A magic cube is a three-dimensional array of whole numbers, in which each row, column, and body diagonal adds up to the same total. A perfect magic cube is one in which the diagonals of each vertical or horizontal slice through the cube also sum to the same value. Mathematicians are intrigued.
Science News December 20, 2003 Ivars Peterson	Sculpting with a Twist Japanese artist Keizo Ushio's fascinating sculptures provide a vivid introduction to the unsuspected intricacies of slicing bagels and cutting Mobius bands.
Macworld January 2004 Charles Seiter	Mathematica 5 Significant speed improvements make this math app the last word in numbers.
Science News December 13, 2003 Ivars Peterson	Tricky Crossings Brainteasers that involve ferrying people and their belongings across a river under trying circumstances have been around for centuries.
Science News December 6, 2003 Ivars Peterson	Megaprime Champion The catalog of humongous prime numbers has a new entry -- the champion prime (2^20996011 - 1), which has 6,320,430 decimal digits. It's the largest known prime number and the 40th Mersenne prime ever found.
Science News November 29, 2003 Ivars Peterson	The Cow in the Classroom There is a difference between mathematical exercises disguised as episodes of everyday life and real mathematics applied in the real world. It's a distinction that's not always apparent in the mathematics classroom.
Science News November 15, 2003 Ivars Peterson	Cool Rationals One of my more distinct recollections of math class involves the decimal representation of rational numbers and the discovery of wonderful patterns among those digits. A new paper finds fascinating new patterns and provides some numerological explanations.
Science News November 8, 2003 Ivars Peterson	Geometreks Strolling down a city street or along a country road can provide a geometrical feast for the eye -- when the viewing is done from a mathematical perspective.
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