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Science News
December 24, 2005
Ivars Peterson |
A Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities New technologies have made it possible to create 3D models of geometric shapes, magically transforming equations into elegant, intriguing miniatures.   |
Science News
April 26, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Recycling Topology On the topology of an interesting form: the recycling symbol |
Science News
June 9, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Mobius Accordion Artist Susan Happersett of Jersey City, N.J., has come up with a novel twist on the venerable Mobius strip: a playful, eye-catching creation she describes as a Mobius accordion... |
Science News
February 17, 2001 |
Immersed in Klein Bottles A description of the "Klein bottle", a mathematical construction that has zero volume, and the story of a company which makes them. |
Science News
October 26, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Tetris Is Hard As many computer- and video-game players have long known, the insanely addictive, immensely popular game of Tetris is tough. Now, researchers from MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science have analyzed Tetris from a computational perspective. |
Science News
April 5, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Fractured Granite and Fractal Prints A fractured edge of granite tends to show the same degree of roughness at different magnifications. Indeed, nature features many irregular shapes that are self-similar -- that repeat themselves on different scales within the same object. |
Science News
April 19, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
The Colors of an Equation's Roots A few artists have taken advantage of the techniques used to visualize mathematics to create aesthetically pleasing patterns and intriguing artworks. |
Science News
June 1, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Setting Records Randomly Athletic record-breaking occurs in such small increments that chance factors loom large. Mathematicians and statisticians have sought recently to learn more about the role of randomness in records... |
Science News
September 6, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Pennant Races and Magic Numbers It's getting close to the end of the regular baseball season. Fanatic fans track not only which team is in first place or in position for a wild-card berth in the playoffs but also the number of games a team must win to avoid elimination. The calculation of a "magic" number is interesting. |
Science News
July 8, 2000
Ivars Peterson |
Mobius and his Band Discovered in a purely mathematical context, the Mobius strip is the best known of the various toys of topology. Since its discovery in the 19th century, it has also achieved a life of its own beyond mathematics---in magic, science, engineering, literature, music, and art... |
Science News
February 8, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
A Graceful Sculpture's Showy Snow Crash Brent Collins has spent more than two decades carving gracefully curvaceous sculptures out of wood. Collins is not a mathematician, yet his intuition and aesthetic sense have led him to explore patterns and shapes that have an underlying mathematical logic. |
Science News
October 4, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
A Magic Knight's Tour For as long as chessboards have existed, there have been puzzles involving chessboards and chess pieces. Some of the most enduring conundrums involve knights. |
Science News
February 9, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Algebraic Hearts One of the marvels of mathematics is the way in which an austere equation can unexpectedly blossom into an appealing geometric shape when represented graphically... |
Science News
November 3, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Absolutely Abnormal Identifying the normal (or even the abnormal) in mathematics can pose serious difficulties... |
Science News
July 21, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Art of Pursuit The simple mathematical concept of a pursuit curve can serve as the starting point for creating wonderfully intricate artistic designs... |
Science News
November 30, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Fold-and-Cut Magic Accordion folds and judicious cutting can produce a string of paper dolls or a variety of geometric patterns. This activity also suggests a mathematical question. |
Science News
December 21, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Lacing Shoes, Revisited What is the best way to lace your shoes? This seemingly simple question, rooted in everyday life, can provoke passionate argument -- and prompt a mathematical response. |
Science News
July 14, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Pursuing Pursuit Curves A pursuit curve is the path an object takes when chasing another object. Such a path might result from a fox pursuing a rabbit or a missile seeking a moving target. Plotting pursuit curves can produce fascinating patterns... |
Science News
January 4, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Sound-Byte Math Music Swedish composer Daniel Cummerow has created mathematical sound bytes belonging to a category known as algorithmic music. Each musical fragment is determined by a mathematical recipe -- a formula that links digits with musical notes and their duration... |
Science News
January 25, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Chemical Dissections In recreational mathematics, a geometric dissection involves cutting a geometric figure into pieces that you can reassemble into another figure. Now, chemists have gotten into the dissection game, as a novel strategy for getting small objects to assemble themselves into different regular forms. |
Science News
September 8, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Waves of Congestion From a physicist's point of view, traffic flow can be regarded as a "many-body system of strongly interacting bodies." Various studies have revealed that such systems can show wavelike behavior and abrupt transitions from one state to another... |
Science News
August 16, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Golf Clubs and Driving Distance The last 20 years have seen remarkable changes in golf equipment: metal-headed drivers, forgiving irons, new putter variants, juiced golf balls, and more. Have these technology changes led to improved performance? |
Science News
June 8, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Fractal Roots and Artful Math The MathArt/ArtMath exhibition showcases mathematical art. |
Science News
May 11, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Song-and-Dance Fermat Fermat's Last Tango, a musical based on the story of Fermat's last theorem and the quest to prove it, is cheerful, clever, and entertaining. Its varied music is engaging. It puts mathematics on display as an intensely human endeavor... |
Science News
November 24, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Canary Songs Simply by manipulating air pressure and muscle tension in its vocal organ, or syrinx, a canary can generate an amazingly varied repertoire of trills, warbles, and other melodic syllables. This insight comes from a novel mathematical model of sound production in songbirds... |
Science News
May 25, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Crystal Mobius Physicists in Japan have come up with a technique for twisting a crystalline ribbon of niobium selenide into a Mobius strip. |
Science News
November 1, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Strolling Down Mobius Lane The geometry of the Mobius band has great potential as an architectural form -- one that is difficult to investigate even with the aid of digital technologies. |
Science News
November 4, 2000
Ivars Peterson |
Mathematical Art on Display The term "mathematical art" usually conjures up just one name---that of Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher. But the realm of mathematical art is far wider and more diverse than most people realize... |
Science News
September 2, 2000 |
Mobius at Fermilab A description of three-dimensional variants of the Mobius band and mathematical forms in art. |
Science News
March 24, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Buses on Quantum Schedules Anyone who has waited for a bus in the city has probably casually observed that, after an inordinately long wait, two or three buses often come along at the same time. The question of why such bunching seems to happen has prompted all sorts of speculation... |
Science News
November 29, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
The Cow in the Classroom There is a difference between mathematical exercises disguised as episodes of everyday life and real mathematics applied in the real world. It's a distinction that's not always apparent in the mathematics classroom. |
Science News
July 7, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Acoustic Residues There's a surprising mathematical ingredient in the sound of many performing artists and recording stars. It manifests itself in the form of clusters of panels hanging on the walls of recording studios, concert halls, nightclubs, and other venues... |
Science News
June 16, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Bubbles and Math Olympiads Predicting the geometric shapes of soap bubble clusters can lead to surprisingly difficult mathematical problems... |
Science News
December 7, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Five-Suit Decks, Traffic-Jam Puzzles, and Other Treats Tired of playing the same old card games with the same old cards? One option is to expand the deck to include five suits instead of just four. |
Science News
July 22, 2000
Ivars Peterson |
Turtle Tracks Using the computer language LOGO, children can produce a list of commands to govern the motion of a "turtle" and trace out a geometric track on the computer screen. Mathematicians can use similar algorithms to generate fractals and other forms. |
Science News
May 18, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
A Lawyer's Math Library Born in 1873, Kentucky lawyer William Marshall Bullitt throughout his long life believed firmly in the value of mathematics. His library of rare mathematical and astronomical books at the University of Louisville library is little-known but incredible... |
