Mathematics

How Decisions Ripple In Social Networks

How people behave in a social network is somewhat mysterious, in the same way we can predict a presidential election with unprecedented accuracy but we can't predict how one person among the six percent of America that chooses a president will vote. ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 27 2014 - 12:32pm

Topology: What Giant Sweatpants And Pencils Tied To Shirts Share

A young boy sits on the carpet, his feet disappearing into a giant pair of sweatpants he put on over his own clothes before loosely tying his ankles together. He has taken the sweatpants off and is now trying to put them back on inside out without removing ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 24 2014 - 9:30am

Origami: It's All About The Math

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Article - The Conversation - Jan 7 2015 - 9:01am

Poker Solved: How To School Your Friends At Heads-Up Limit Hold'em Using Science

Games have been test beds for new ideas in Artificial Intelligence (AI) since computers came on the scene and there have been significant milestones- Deep Blue sort of defeated Kasparov in chess and Watson sort of defeated Jennings and Rutter on Jeopardy!  ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 8 2015 - 3:35pm

Possible Gravitational Evolution Of Dark Matter Halos

Considering environmental effects such as a gravitational tidal force spread over a scale much larger than a galaxy cluster will be indispensable to explain the distribution and evolution of dark matter halos around galaxies, according to a comparison bet ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 19 2015 - 8:30am

The Math Of One-Night Stands And Long-Term Relationships: Mating Market Theory

The sex ratio in your community may affect what you're looking for in a relationship. Shutterstock By Ryan Schacht, University of Utah and Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, University of California, Davis ...

Article - The Conversation - Jan 16 2015 - 2:00pm

Optimization Algorithms Get Some Optimization

Optimization algorithms seek to find the minimum values of mathematical functions in engineering. It's how engineers evaluate design trade-offs, assess control systems and how people find patterns in data. One practical way to solve a difficult optimi ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 21 2015 - 3:41pm

Naming Game Theory Shows How Zealots Sway Popular Opinion

By Ker Than,  Inside Science (Inside Science)-- Opinions rarely form in a vacuum. People are heavily influenced by the opinions of others in their social networks, whether they be real or virtual. Some people are not open to new ideas. These are the zealo ...

Article - Inside Science - Feb 25 2015 - 3:00pm

Statistical Mechanics Reveals The Ideal Hideout During A Zombie Takeover

Researchers focusing on a new way to discuss statistical mechanics have modeled "World War Z", an oral history of the first zombie war, to explore how an "actual" zombie outbreak might play out in the U.S.   ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 27 2015 - 11:22am

The Science Of Randomness, One Penny At A Time

The concept of randomness has intrigued great minds for as long as history of great thinkers has been recorded.  From the nature of wind to drunks running into lampposts on their way home, scholars have been intrigued with making random predictable.  A gro ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 4 2015 - 10:29am