Belgian Mathematician Wins Abel Prize for Shaping Algebraic Geometry

Pierre Deligne netted the prize, one of the most prestigious in mathematics and worth about $1 million, for proving a deep conjecture about algebraic geometry which has helped to transform number theory and related fields. Click here for more information.

Kenneth I. Appel, Mathematician Who Harnessed Computer Power, Dies at 80

Kenneth I. Appel, who helped usher the venerable mathematical proof into the computer age, solving a longstanding problem concerning colors on a map with the help of an I.B.M. computer making billions of decisions, died on April 19 in Dover, N.H. He was 80.

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48th Known Mersenne Prime Found!

On January 25th, the largest known prime number, 2^57,885,161-1, was discovered on Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) volunteer Curtis Cooper's computer. The new prime number, 2 multiplied by itself 57,885,161 times, less one, has 17,425,170 digits.

Click here for more information.

Animated Factorization Diagrams

A very cool visual representation of numbers and their factors.

Prime Number Patterns (II)

Another interesting article using circles on the distribution of primes and twin primes.

Proof Claimed For Deep Connection Between Primes

The usually quiet world of mathematics is abuzz with a claim that one of the most important problems in number theory has been solved.

Mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki of Kyoto University in Japan has released a 500-page proof of the abc conjecture, which proposes a relationship between whole numbers — a 'Diophantine' problem.

Click here to continue reading.

Prime Number Patterns

Prime Number Patterns is a visual representation of determining which natural numbers are prime, deficient, perfect, or abundant.

NASA MathTrax

NASA MathTrax is a graphing tool for middle school and high school students to graph equations, physics simulations or plot data files. The graphs have descriptions and sound so you can hear and read about the graph. Blind and low vision users can access visual math data and graph or experiment with equations and datasets.

'The Scale of the Universe,' by Two Teenage Brothers

Another Flash animation of the size of the universe.

Solar System Explained From the Inside Out

An excellent image showing the scale of our solar system.

Japanese man calculates pi to 10 trillion digits

The latest number-crunching champ isn't a supercomputer--it's a hacked-together PC.

Shigeru Kondo of Iida, Nagano Prefecture, worked with software designed by Northwestern University grad student Alexander Yee, and followed up their 2010 feat of reckoning pi to 5 trillion digits.

The result was achieved earlier this month after 371 days of computation and numerous hard drive failures.

Click here for more information.

Babbage Analytical Engine designs to be digitised

A project to construct one of the earliest mechanical computers based on sketches by its designer, Charles Babbage, has received a major boost.

The Science Museum in London has agreed to help by digitising the mathematician's original plans.

Eventually the images will be used to create a full working model of the Analytical Engine.

Click here for the full article.

Crazy Japanese Math

This is one way to keep kids (i.e., boys) interested in math. Too bad I can't read it.

Economy Statistics

Due to the ongoing bad economy, I decided to add a couple of statistical graphs to show that.

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

US debt problem visualized: Debt stacked in 100 dollar bills

The Batman Equation

FRACTRAN

I came across this mathematical programming article on Wikipedia called FRACTRAN.

FRACTRAN is a Turing-complete esoteric programming language invented by the mathematician John Conway.

What an amazing methodology. I decided to buy the referenced book "Nonplussed!: Mathematical Proof of Implausible Ideas". It's easy to read, but the proof is still difficult to follow. I really need to read it again.

π = 4!

Extended Midy's Theorem

This is my proof, and an extension, of Midy's Theorem. Someone had referenced this in Wikipedia almost six years ago, but it was recently removed (still in the history) to make Wikipedia more official. Since this blog came about after my proof, I never went back and added it.

Microsoft Mathematics 4.01

Microsoft Mathematics provides a graphing calculator that plots in 2D and 3D, step-by-step equation solving, and useful tools to help students with math and science studies.

Be sure to download the Microsoft Mathematics Add-In for Word and OneNote as well.

Scale Of The Universe

Great flash website that shows the scale of the universe.