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Channel: Mathematics – Quanta Magazine
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‘Once in a Century’ Proof Settles Math’s Kakeya Conjecture

Consider a pencil lying on your desk. Try to spin it around so that it points once in every direction, but make sure it sweeps over as little of the desk’s surface as possible. You might twirl the...

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Three Hundred Years Later, a Tool from Isaac Newton Gets an Update

Every day, researchers search for optimal solutions. They might want to figure out where to build a major airline hub. Or to determine how to maximize return while minimizing risk in an investment...

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A New Proof Smooths Out the Math of Melting

Imagine an ice cube floating in a glass of water. Eventually, it will melt down to a tiny frozen speck before disappearing. As it shrinks, its surface gets smoother, and any irregularities or sharp...

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Where Does Meaning Live in a Sentence? Math Might Tell Us.

Growing up, Tai-Danae Bradley had no love for math. In 2008, she entered the City College of New York, where she played for the basketball team and hoped to start a career in sports nutrition. She saw...

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New Proof Settles Decades-Old Bet About Connected Networks

It started with a bet. In the late 1980s, at a conference in Lausanne, the mathematicians Noga Alon and Peter Sarnak got into a friendly debate. Both were studying collections of nodes and edges called...

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