Our animal brains deal with quantities in very specific, and fascinating, ways. Would it surprise you to learn that fish and birds count in pretty much the same way that we do? And that infants can do ...

Have you ever sat in a math classroom and wondered, “When will I ever use this?” You might have asked yourself this question when you first encountered “imaginary” numbers, and with good reason: What ...

In the early 1970s mathematician Donald Knuth spent a sabbatical with his wife in Norway. The time was meant to be spent relaxing. Yet one night he woke up his partner in a state of agitation. He ...

What is the most bizarre real number that you can imagine? Probably many people think of an irrational number such as pi (π) or Euler’s number. And indeed, such values can be considered “wild.” After ...

Mathematicians were disturbed, centuries ago, to find that calculating the properties of certain curves demanded the seemingly impossible: numbers that, when multiplied by themselves, turn negative.

President Trump placed the D.C. Metropolitan Police under federal control on Monday and announced he'll be sending in the National Guard, claiming the city is facing huge increases in violent crime ...