Math

Despite their performance, current AI models have major weaknesses: they require enormous resources and are indecipherable. Help may be on the way

The most common test of statistical significance originated from the Guinness brewery. Here’s how it works

An infinite number of random events can produce just about anything if you have quintillions of years to wait

Can you assign a size to every object? The surprising answer is no

Michel Talagrand innovative work has allowed others to tackle problems involving random processes

If pi is a “normal” number, the constant would contain much more than Shakespeare, resolving why such a random-looking number lives at the heart of simple circles

The Collatz conjecture has plagued mathematicians for decades—so much so that professors warn their students away from it

Are you smarter than an 18th-century Prussian?

The origin of the decimal point, a powerful calculation tool, has been traced back to a mathematician who lived during the Italian Renaissance

A simple solution to gerrymandering crumbles when confronted with math’s “ham sandwich theorem”

Physicists found that the music of Johann Sebastian Bach contains mathematical patterns that help convey information

In the 1970s mathematicians found a simple way to create all numbers, from the infinitely small to infinitely large