The moving sofa problem, which deals with the math of how shapes can fit around corners, may have been solved by a Korean mathematician. UC Davis mathematician Dan Romik has made a study of the ...

The movement of a moving sofa in the perspective of hallway (top) and sofa (bottom). Credit: arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2411.19826 A mathematician at Yonsei University, in Korea, claims to have ...

A 31-year-old Korean mathematician solved one of the oldest math puzzles and was recognized as one of Scientific American’s top math breakthroughs of 2025. The “Optimality of Gerver's Sofa” study by ...

When you’re hauling a couch through a narrow hallway and yelling “Pivot!” like Ross from Friends, you’re unwittingly grappling with a half-century-old mathematical conundrum. Known as the Moving Sofa ...

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, ...

Twenty-five years too late to help Ross get his new couch into his apartment in "Friends," a mathematician has finally solved the pesky "sofa problem." The math problem delineates the largest-size ...

What is the largest sofa that you can squeeze around the corner of a hallway? A horseshoe-shaped piece of furniture known as Gerver’s sofa has officially taken the crown, solving a mathematical ...

In a scene from the classic sitcom, "Friends," the characters Ross, Rachel and Chandler struggle to heft a new couch up the stairs of their apartment building. As they try to get the sofa around the ...