Irrational numbers such as pi or the square root of 2 have always fascinated humankind. For thousands of years, scholars have ...

Originally defined as the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter, pi — written as the Greek letter π — appears throughout mathematics, including in areas that are completely ...

Mathematics students often encounter confusion when distinguishing between rational and irrational numbers. However, mastering this fundamental concept becomes straightforward once you understand the ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

THIS is emphatically a text-book, deductive in method and Euclidean in arrangement; as such, it has the defects of its qualities, but its merits are undeniable. In this volume the author deals with ...

When my students grow too dependent on their calculators, I ask them to find a number that, when multiplied by itself, gives them 2. Students quickly see that since 1² = 1 and 2² = 4, the answer has ...

The ancient Greeks wondered when “irrational” numbers can be approximated by fractions. By proving the longstanding Duffin-Schaeffer conjecture, two mathematicians have provided a complete answer. The ...