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Science News February 9, 2002 Ivars Peterson |
Algebraic Hearts One of the marvels of mathematics is the way in which an austere equation can unexpectedly blossom into an appealing geometric shape when represented graphically...  |
Science News February 22, 2003 Ivars Peterson |
The Tangled Task of Distinguishing Knots Unlike a knotted piece of rope, a mathematical knot has no free ends. In this context, a knot is a one-dimensional curve that winds through itself in three-dimensional space, finally catching its tail to form a closed loop.  |
Science News October 4, 2003 Ivars Peterson |
A Magic Knight's Tour For as long as chessboards have existed, there have been puzzles involving chessboards and chess pieces. Some of the most enduring conundrums involve knights.  |
Science News April 14, 2007 Julie J. Rehmeyer |
Euler's Beautiful Equation Leonhard Euler, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, was born 300 years ago on April 15, 1707. He discovered the equation e ip = -1.  |
Science News May 3, 2003 Ivars Peterson |
A Geometric Superformula The notion of a simple equation that you can use to generate a wide variety of geometric shapes is an immensely appealing one. Johan Gielis of Antwerp, Belgium, proposes one such formula in the March American Journal of Botany.  |
Science News September 6, 2003 Ivars Peterson |
Pennant Races and Magic Numbers It's getting close to the end of the regular baseball season. Fanatic fans track not only which team is in first place or in position for a wild-card berth in the playoffs but also the number of games a team must win to avoid elimination. The calculation of a "magic" number is interesting.  |
Science News December 8, 2001 Ivars Peterson |
The Math Hatter and More Looking for a cool gift for someone mathematically inclined? An unusual, conversation-generating token of appreciation? The World Wide Web offers a number of intriguing possibilities -- if you know where to stop and shop...  |
Science News June 1, 2002 Ivars Peterson |
Setting Records Randomly Athletic record-breaking occurs in such small increments that chance factors loom large. Mathematicians and statisticians have sought recently to learn more about the role of randomness in records...  |
Science News January 4, 2003 Ivars Peterson |
Sound-Byte Math Music Swedish composer Daniel Cummerow has created mathematical sound bytes belonging to a category known as algorithmic music. Each musical fragment is determined by a mathematical recipe -- a formula that links digits with musical notes and their duration...  |
T.H.E. Journal January 2001 |
Three Applications Let Students Explore Math From ImagiWorks, Inc. comes ImagiMath, a suite of three mathematics applications for Palm hand-held devices. The ImagiGraph application serves as a mathematics visualizer; ImagiCalc is a full-featured calculator; and ImagiSolve is a mathematics worksheet and equation solver...  |
Science News July 21, 2001 Ivars Peterson |
Art of Pursuit The simple mathematical concept of a pursuit curve can serve as the starting point for creating wonderfully intricate artistic designs...  |
Science News November 3, 2001 Ivars Peterson |
Absolutely Abnormal Identifying the normal (or even the abnormal) in mathematics can pose serious difficulties...  |
Industrial Physicist Apr/May 2003 Marko Ledvij |
Curve fitting made easy In science and engineering it is often desirable to represent empirical data as a mathematical equation, from which calculus can be used to determine many important characteristics. The goal of curve fitting is to find values for parameters that produce a curve closest to the data.  |
Science News October 31, 2008 Julie Rehmeyer |
Unknotting Knot Theory New techniques are beginning to unravel the mysteries of knots, revealing a great mathematical superstructure in the process  |
Science News April 29, 2006 Ivars Peterson |
Constructing Difference Engines The Science Museum in London built a complete, working version of Babbage's second difference engine that could hold seven number of 31 decimals each, allowing it to tabulate seventh-degree polynomials to high precision.  |
Science News September 8, 2001 Ivars Peterson |
Waves of Congestion From a physicist's point of view, traffic flow can be regarded as a "many-body system of strongly interacting bodies." Various studies have revealed that such systems can show wavelike behavior and abrupt transitions from one state to another...  |
Science News August 6, 2005 Ivars Peterson |
Playing with Ruth-Aaron Pairs Mathematicians have taken the home run records of Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth and made the fascinating discovery that the numbers have more in common than just baseball.  |
T.H.E. Journal September 2001 Joan Bookbinder-Kessler |
Theorist Interactive's Livemath Maker 3.0.1 LiveMath Maker 3.0.1 is an exciting new addition to a family of software products designed to enhance mathematics education from pre-algebra through differential equations...  |
Popular Mechanics November 19, 2008 Kate Schweitzer |
Fringe's Music to Math Connection Contains as Much Fact as Fiction Is there really a connection between mathematics and music?  |
Science News July 15, 2006 Ivars Peterson |
Math Trek: Flirting with the Impossible Common sense by itself is too limiting for making progress in mathematics. New concepts arise out of leaps of imagination. And such out-of-the-box thinking puts mathematics into a rich intellectual landscape that it shares with physics, philosophy, literature, and art.  |
IEEE Spectrum September 2007 Robert W. Lucky |
Math Blues Has mathematics disappeared behind the screens of our monitors, as have so many other subjects since engineering began to center increasingly on writing software?  |
Salon.com September 5, 2002 David Appell |
Math = beauty + truth / (really hard) Explaining what the winners of the world's top awards in mathematics actually do isn't as easy as adding 2+2. But we'll give it a try.  |