In 1852 mathematician Francis Guthrie asked a seemingly simple question that triggered endless dispute, left a trail of overturned publications in its wake and culminated in a resolution that has ...

Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News. A high school ...

In 2022, two high school students created a trigonometric proof of the Pythagorean Theorem—something that’s only ever been accomplished by a few professional mathematicians. Now, a new article not ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1994, an earthquake of a proof shook up the mathematical world. The mathematician Andrew Wiles had finally settled Fermat’s Last ...

Pi Day (March 14) is a day of global mathematical celebration, but it’s not the only numerically significant calendar date. It’s far from the rarest, either. In fact, today marks a special occasion ...

Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson believe they can prove the Pythagorean Theorem using trigonometry — and are being encouraged to submit their work for peer review Jason Hahn is a former Human ...

For over two millennia, mathematicians agreed on one thing: you can’t use trigonometry to prove Pythagoras’ Theorem—because ...

A mathematician will turn a groundbreaking 100-page proof into computer code. The proof tool, Lean, lets users turn proofs written in prose into rules and logic for testing. Kevin Buzzard already uses ...

Through its short chapters and fun illustrations, Look uses cats as the entry point to explain the workings and the relevance ...

Consider lunch. Perhaps a nice ham sandwich. A knife should neatly halve the ham and two bread slices. But what if you slip? Oops—the ham now rests folded under a ...

Here's what the hairiest problem in math can teach us about wind, antennas and nuclear fusion. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.