How maths can help you pack your shopping more efficiently
7 June 2023
How can you ensure you use the fewest bags when loading your shopping? A dash of maths will help, says Peter Rowlett
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Algorithms
1 December 2021
Originally a way of solving complicated equations with moving variables, the modern definition of an algorithm is morphing
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī
1 December 2021
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was a Persian polymath, sometimes known as the father of algebra, who produced ground-breaking works in mathematics, astronomy and geography
Mathematician makes breakthrough on 100-year-old problem about knots
5 February 2021
Some tangles that look like knots are actually “the unknot”, which can be untangled into a simple loop, and a new algorithm has sped up the process of finding them
Inside the race to find the first billion-digit prime number
7 August 2019
Discovering giant prime numbers involves laborious trial and error, and they are of little use when they are found. For certain devotees, that's beside the point
Nira Chamberlain: The maths that can stop an apocalypse
25 October 2018
If you want to stop robots taking over the world, put your faith in one weapon, says Nira Chamberlain: maths
Unbreakable: The race to protect our secrets from quantum hacks
28 February 2018
Quantum computers will smash our best encryption. To make everything from online chats to government intelligence safe, we need maths no machine could solve
From statistics to surgery to psychology: Our favourite reads
10 August 2017
A visit to the bookstore turns up a trove of smart scientific (and not-so-scientific) thinking
Maths website stops you being ripped off by your flatmates
16 June 2017
Who pays what in a flat-share is a tricky problem. Results from website Spliddit show the maths of fair division gives the solutions people think are best
