Mathematics

'Mathematical Relativity' Improves Particle Calculation Speeds One Million-Fold, Says Physicist

One of the foundations of Einstein's Special Relativity is that no particular frame of reference is better than any other- whether you're sitting on the couch or barreling through space on a rocket, physics doesn't change. On the other hand, ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 12 2007 - 3:04pm

Experimental Mathematics

The journal Experimental Mathematics, started in 1992, publishes “formal results inspired by experimentation, conjectures suggested by experiments, descriptions of algorithms and software for mathematical exploration, [and] surveys of areas of mathematics ...

Article - Seth Roberts - Dec 4 2007 - 6:18pm

No Primate Left Behind: Monkeys Perform Arithmetic As Well As College Students

Adult humans possess some mathematical abilities that are unmatched by any other member of the animal kingdom but there is increasing evidence that the ability to count sets of objects nonverbally is a capacity that humans share with other animal species. ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 18 2007 - 12:30am

The K_4 Crystal Is The Secret Of A Diamond's Beauty

For centuries, human beings have been entranced by the captivating glimmer of the diamond. What accounts for the stunning beauty of this most precious gem? As mathematician Toshikazu Sunada explains in an article in the Notices of the American Mathematical ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 3 2008 - 10:19am

Old School Math Delivers New Ideas About Interstellar Shock Waves

Who needs a computer? Two theoretical physicists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute grabbed a piece of paper and described the motion of interstellar shock waves — violent events associated with the birth of stars and planets. The mathematical solution de ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 14 2008 - 2:13am

3-D Computer Snowflakes Are Never The Same Twice

Three-dimensional snowflakes can now be grown in a computer using a program developed by mathematicians at UC Davis and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. No two snowflakes are truly alike, but they can be very similar to each other, said Janko Gravner, ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 17 2008 - 12:24pm

Statistics Bowl- How The 2007 Patriots And The 1972 Dolphins Compare Scientifically

Sports pundits across the country have been comparing the so-far unbeaten 2007 New England Patriots to the perfect 1972 Dolphins all year. A New York cardiologist has used the scientific statistics used in large-scale medical trials to determine which of t ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 30 2008 - 10:04pm

Can You Hear The Shape Of A Quantum Drum?

Forty years ago, mathematician Mark Kac asked the theoretical question, "Can one hear the shape of a drum?" If drums of different shapes always produce their own unique sound spectrum, then it should be possible to identify the shape of a specifi ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 8 2008 - 10:47am

Poincaré Dodecahedral Space Model Gains Support To Explain The Shape Of Space

An international team of cosmologists, leaded by a researcher from Paris Observatory, has improved the theoretical pertinence of the Poincaré Dodecahedral Space (PDS) topology to explain some observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). In parall ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 11 2008 - 9:21pm

Zig Or Zag? A New Mathematical Model Tells How We Master Steep Slopes

A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it isn’t necessarily the fastest or easiest path to follow. That’s particularly true when terrain is not level, and now researchers have developed a mathematical model showing that a zigz ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 20 2008 - 1:53pm