“The parentheses feel artificial.” The octonions’ seemingly unphysical nonassociativity has crippled many physicists’ efforts to exploit them, but Baez explained that their peculiar math has also ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about the intersection of learning, research, and technology. It’s often said that the best teachers don’t teach their ...

Numbers have a funny way about them. Young math students are taught various strategies to make problem-solving easier. Comparing fractions? Find a common denominator or convert to decimals. The ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

This is episode two of a three-part series. You can listen to part one here and part three here. [CLIP: Theme music] Rachel Feltman: Ever wondered what math actually is? No? Well, mathematicians sure ...

Isaac Asimov excelled at predicting the future. In one of his early science fiction stories, he introduced pocket calculators decades before you could buy them at Radio Shack. In a later book, he ...

In math, Algebra 1 is a make-or-break course. The class is the gateway to high school math, and struggling to complete it can close off those higher-level pathways—and even jeopardize students’ ...

Researchers Brad Theilman, center, and Felix Wang, behind, unpack a neuromorphic computing core at Sandia National Laboratories. While the hardware might look similar to a regular computer, the ...

David Bessis was drawn to mathematics for the same reason that many people are driven away: He didn’t understand how it worked. Unlike other creative processes, like making music, which can be heard, ...

Neuromorphic computers, inspired by the architecture of the human brain, are proving surprisingly adept at solving complex mathematical problems that underpin scientific and engineering challenges.