What if the famous P vs NP problem isn’t just about algorithms but about the observers trying to solve them? Research suggests computational difficulty depends on observer limits.

Alan Veliz-Cuba has received funding from the Simons Foundation and the American Mathematical Society for some of his research. You can probably think of a time when you’ve used math to solve an ...

Here’s a mind-blowing experiment that you can try at home: Gather some children’s blocks and place them on a table. Take one block and slowly push it over the table’s edge, inch by inch, until it’s on ...

A math problem delineating the largest-size sofa that can fit around a corner has finally been solved, though it may not help you move. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

This is an updated version of a story first published on May 5, 2024. For many high school students returning to class, it may seem like geometry and trigonometry were created by the Greeks as a form ...

Landmark results in geometry and number theory marked an exciting year for mathematics, at a time when advances in artificial intelligence are starting to transform the subject’s future. In May, a ...

John von Neumann came about as close as humanly possible to embodying the Platonic ideal of a genius. Conversant in ancient Greek by age 6, the Hungarian made significant mathematical advances in his ...

In a weekend in the spring of 2025, a clandestine mathematical conclave convened. Thirty of the world’s most renowned mathematicians traveled to Berkeley, Calif., with some coming from as far away as ...

A.I.’s math problem reflects how much the new technology is a break with computing’s past. By Steve Lohr In the school year that ended recently, one class of learners stood out as a seeming puzzle.