Math

Can you ascend this unusual pyramid?

Knots show how to generate infinitely many formulas of a kind developed by the visionary genius

Another bombshell result shows how artificial intelligence is fueling fierce competition at the frontiers of math and physics

A question posed by Sir Walter Raleigh about cannonballs inadvertently led to a puzzle that mathematicians have been trying to solve for centuries

The results resolve major problems in math, physics and computer science. But like other recent AI-generated “slop drops,” the releases are already controversial

Flex your math muscles with this weekend’s brain teaser. Play now

AI’s solution to the Navier-Stokes problem, and the details of how it happened, preview a chaotic future for math—and the world

Mapping a sphere onto a flat plane is mathematically impossible. But a better world map than the Mercator projection is

Solve a new-parent dilemma with this math puzzle

The benchmark confirms that some AIs are becoming exceptional tools for research-level math. But open-source models still struggle

A stratagem that dates back two millennia leads to a math puzzle that took 30 years to solve

The elegant curl of rose petals may be distinct among flowers—and math can explain why