mathematics – News Stories About mathematics - Page 1

Pi Gets the Glory. What About
Feigenbaum's Constant Delta?

the rundown

Mar 14, 2023 6:51 AM CDT

Pi Gets the Glory. What About Feigenbaum's Constant Delta?

On Pi Day, math professor suggests other numbers we might celebrate

(Newser) - Pi Day is upon us again—March 14, aka 3/14, aka the first three numbers in the famous mathematical constant. Here is a look at what celebrants need to know and eat:

Fitting tribute: There is lots of talk about delicious pies on this day, but University of Maryland math

...

Test Scores for US
Students Are 'Appalling'

the rundown

Oct 24, 2022 11:05 AM CDT

Test Scores for US Students Are 'Appalling'

Drops recorded in math and reading, and the pandemic is blamed

(Newser) - A federal assessment of US students known as the "nation's report card" is out, and the results are pretty bleak. Scores are down in reading and math—especially math—across the country, with the pandemic blamed for wreaking havoc on education. Details:

The test: The National Assessment of

...

Just One Teen
on the Planet
Aced This Test

Sep 26, 2022 10:40 AM CDT

Just One Teen on the Planet Aced This Test

Felix Zhang of Indiana apparently knows his calculus

(Newser) - On planet Earth, some 270,000 students took the AP Calculus AB exam in May 2022. About 20% of them scored a 5, which is the highest score possible. But Felix Zhang did something no one else did: The Indiana high schooler got a perfect score. Then a sophomore at...

$Kids' Math, Reading Scores Took Huge Pandemic Hit$

'Nation's Report Card' Offers
'Sobering' Pandemic Update

Sep 1, 2022 8:14 AM CDT

'Nation's Report Card' Offers 'Sobering' Pandemic Update

Kids' math, reading scores took an unprecedented hit over the past 2 years

(Newser) - It's undisputed that kids had a rough time of it during the pandemic. Now, results from national tests show just how rough, at least in terms of how their academic skills have suffered. The "nation's report card"—ie, the National Assessment of Educational Progress—was released...

Mathematician Snags Richest
Prize for His 'Alien' Equations

Sep 11, 2020 5:25 PM CDT

Mathematician Snags Richest Prize for His 'Alien' Equations

Martin Hairer among those to get $3M a 'Breakthrough' award

(Newser) - A researcher once said that a theory related to a branch of math dealing with random processes was so impressive, it must have come from aliens . It was actually the work of Martin Hairer, who has now been awarded the richest prize in academia, reports the Guardian . Hairer was named...

He's Stunning Fans on Jeopardy! He Used to Stun His Preschool

Tribune Wrote About
Jeopardy! Whiz ...
When He Was 4

May 6, 2019 9:08 AM CDT

Tribune Wrote About Jeopardy! Whiz ... When He Was 4

Paper digs up article on James Holzhauer

(Newser) - Long before he was racking up win after win —and oodles of cash—on Jeopardy!, James Holzhauer was impressing an entirely different demographic: his preschool teachers. The Chicago Tribune has unearthed an article that appeared in its pages in January 1989, when Holzhauer was just 4 years old and...

Mathematician Conquers Vexing Numbers Problem

A Cubed Number Puzzle
Is Solved. Only One Is Left

Apr 4, 2019 10:00 AM CDT

A Cubed Number Puzzle Is Solved. Only One Is Left

UK's Andrew Booker figures out which three cubed numbers add up to 33

(Newser) - For more than half a century, modern mathematicians have been trying to crack two stubborn numbers problems—and a UK professor just solved one of them. As Live Science explains, the problem itself seems fairly straight-forward: Which three cubed numbers add up to 33? The University of Bristol's Andrew...

First Woman Ever
Wins Math's Version
of the 'Nobel Prize'

Mar 19, 2019 3:47 PM CDT

First Woman Ever Wins Math's Version of the 'Nobel Prize'

Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck of the University of Texas at Austin is honored

(Newser) - For the first time ever, a woman has won the Abel Prize, which the Guardian calls one of the most prestigious international mathematics awards. In fact, there is no Nobel Prize for math , and the Abel Prize is seen by some as the equivalent of the Nobel. Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck...

The World Has
a New Pi Champ

the Rundown

Mar 14, 2019 12:25 PM CDT

The World Has a New Pi Champ

Google's Emma Iwao calculates it to 31 trillion digits

(Newser) - It's Pi Day, the 3/14 celebration of perhaps the most famous number in history. Google is celebrating with a record-breaking feat: One of its employees calculated pi to 31 trillion digits, 9 trillion more than the previous record, with help from cloud computing, reports the BBC . Emma Hauka Iwao...

Solution to Math Problem
Begins in Unexpected Place

Nov 12, 2018 3:33 PM CST

Solution to Math Problem Begins in Unexpected Place

Anonymous 4chan user was answering question about binge-watching anime show

(Newser) - It might be the strangest journey to the solution of a math conundrum ever. It turns out that an anonymous post on the online forum 4chan about how to watch a Japanese anime series may have helped crack a 25-year-old math problem, reports the Verge . Not surprisingly, this one takes...

His $1M Math Solution
Isn't Going Over Well

His $1M Math Solution Isn't Going Over Well

Michael Atiyah must convince colleagues that he cracked a 159-year-old problem

(Newser) - Michael Atiyah is an acclaimed mathematician who has won some of the top prizes in his field, and he now claims to have cracked a 159-year-old problem called the Riemann hypothesis. If he's right, Atiyah wins even more acclaim—plus a $1 million prize. But before the bubbly is...

He Won Math's
Most Coveted Prize.
30 Minutes Later,
It Was Gone

Aug 2, 2018 6:33 AM CDT

He Won Math's Most Coveted Prize. 30 Minutes Later, It Was Gone

Rio thief made off with professor's Fields medal

(Newser) - Algebraic geometry, particularly problems involving singularities and linear systems, is Caucher Birkar's specialty. Hanging on to medals apparently isn't. The renowned Cambridge professor had his Fields medal—known as the Nobel Prize of mathematics—stolen within 30 minutes of receiving it at the International Congress of Mathematics in...

Babies May Not
Get the Concept
of 'Zero,' but
Bees Do

NEW STUDY

Jun 8, 2018 12:46 PM CDT

Babies May Not Get the Concept of 'Zero,' but Bees Do

Researchers amazed that honeybees can grasp the abstract construct of 'nothing'

(Newser) - Dolphins, monkeys, birds, and homo sapiens have a shared understanding of a quite difficult concept, and now honeybees are joining the party. Per a release , that concept is "zero," an abstract mathematical construct that scientists say stumps humans until at least preschool , but which they now note is...

5th-Grade Exam
Question Leaves
Internet Stumped

5th-Grade Exam Question Leaves Internet Stumped

Education department says problem was meant to assess critical thinking

(Newser) - "If a ship had 26 sheep and 10 goats on board, how old is the ship's captain?" Stumped? So are fifth-grade students in China's Shunqing district of Nanchong, where the aforementioned question appeared on a math exam for the 11-year-olds. Some gave their best guesses, with one...

After 14 Years, FedEx Employee
Makes Major Math Discovery

Jan 6, 2018 12:34 PM CST

After 14 Years, FedEx Employee Makes Major Math Discovery

There's a new longest known prime number

(Newser) - A new prime number—the biggest ever—has been discovered. Unfortunately, we don't have the 54 days CNET reports it would take to write it all out. The newly found number, nicknamed M77232917, is 2 to the 77,232,917th power minus 1, according to FiveThirtyEight . It's 23,...

Earliest Known Use of Zero
Found by Farmer in Pakistan

Sep 14, 2017 1:08 PM CDT

Earliest Known Use of Zero Found by Farmer in Pakistan

The Bakhshali manuscript dates to the 3rd or 4th century

(Newser) - When it comes to mathematics, zero is not nothing. And thanks to new research and some carbon dating, we now know "zero" as we know it was invented a whole lot earlier than we thought. "Today we take it for granted that the concept of zero is used...

Tablet Shows Maybe Greeks
Didn't Invent Trig After All

Aug 26, 2017 1:23 PM CDT

Tablet Shows Maybe Greeks Didn't Invent Trig After All

Researchers say Babylonians beat Greeks to trigonometry by 1,000 years

(Newser) - Greek astronomer Hipparchus is known as the father of trigonometry. But the Guardian reports Babylonian mathematicians may have gotten there 1,000 years earlier. Ever since the real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones discovered a 3,700-year-old clay tablet called P322 in what is now Iraq, historians and mathematicians have debated...

Girl Scouts
Have 23 New
Badges, With
Science Focus

Jul 25, 2017 10:27 AM CDT

Girl Scouts Have 23 New Badges, With Science Focus

Biggest new batch in a decade for the group

(Newser) - From tiny Daisies to teen Ambassadors, Girl Scouts may now earn 23 new badges focused on science, technology, engineering, and math. It's the largest addition of new badges in a decade for Girl Scouts of the USA, per the AP . The effort takes a progressive approach to STEM and...

1st Woman to Win Math's
Nobel Prize Dies at 40

Jul 15, 2017 2:20 PM CDT

1st Woman to Win Math's Nobel Prize Dies at 40

Maryam Mirzakhani was 'ambitious, resolute, and fearless'

(Newser) - The first woman to win the Fields Medal—essentially math's version of the Nobel Prize—has died at the age of 40 after a battle with breast cancer, NPR reports. According to AFP , Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born Stanford professor, won the award in 2014 for her work in geometry...

Why These Immigrants
Gravitate to Math, Science

new study

Mar 31, 2017 8:17 AM CDT

Why These Immigrants Gravitate to Math, Science

The age one came to the US plays a role

(Newser) - It's formally called the Regeneron Student Talent Search, but it's more casually known as the "Junior Nobel"—and the high schooler who wins the elite science prize walks with $250,000. A study on last year's finalists turned up something interesting, reports Teen Vogue : 83%...