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Math students may not blink at calculating probabilities, measuring the area beneath curves or evaluating matrices, yet they often find themselves at sea when first confronted with writing proofs. But ...
Marijn Heule turns mathematical statements into something like Sudoku puzzles, then has computers go to work on them. His proofs have been called “disgusting,” but they go beyond what any human can do ...
A technology once confined to academic papers is now being called out in US government reports and powering the settlement systems of global banks. Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) are cryptographic ...
When Arts students think of formal logic, plenty of things like pretentious debate bros and achingly advanced mathematics come up. A long time ago, I used to be one of these people. But that couldn’t ...
In 1990, Marilyn vos Savant riled up scores of mathematicians with her solution to the “Monty Hall Problem.” But she was right. The following is an excerpt from Proof: The Art and Science of Certainty ...
Earlier this month, 36 sharp-witted high school students from around the globe stepped foot on the warm and breezy campus of Stanford University. Out of more than 4,000 students from more than 2,000 ...
Thomas Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence read: “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable . . . ” It was supposedly Benjamin Franklin who suggested instead announcing ...
In a new book, the mathematical epidemiologist Adam Kucharski explains how certainty, even in math, can be an illusion. Nonfiction In a new book, the mathematical epidemiologist Adam Kucharski ...