https://phys.org/science-news/mathematics en-us The latest news on mathematics, math, math science, mathematical science and math technology. When facing a daunting dataset, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), known as PCA, can help distill complexity by finding a few meaningful features that explain the most significant proportion of the data variance. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-statistical-tool-distinguish-unique-features.html Mathematics Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:42:25 EST news628519299 Is it possible to deduce the shape of a drum from the sounds it makes? This is the kind of question that Iosif Polterovich, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Université de Montréal, likes to ask. Polterovich uses spectral geometry, a branch of mathematics, to understand physical phenomena involving wave propagation. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-mathematicians-plya-conjecture-eigenvalues-disk.html Mathematics Fri, 01 Mar 2024 10:54:19 EST news628512858 With its bright colors, easy-to-learn rules and familiar music, the video game Tetris has endured as a pop culture icon over the last 40 years. Many people, like me, have been playing the game for decades, and it has evolved to adapt to new technologies like game systems, phones and tablets. But until January 2024, nobody had ever been able to beat it. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-play-tetris-architects-animators-alike.html Mathematics Education Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:30:03 EST news628342201 Studies by applied mathematicians at the University of Surrey are helping to identify ways of reducing how much liquids slosh around inside tanks. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-mathematicians-sloshing-porous-baffles.html Mathematics Tue, 27 Feb 2024 15:57:14 EST news628271832 Intelligent tutoring systems for math problems helped pupils remain or even increase their performance during the pandemic. This is the conclusion of a new study led by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Loughborough University in the U.K. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-smart-software-students-math-lockdowns.html Mathematics Education Tue, 27 Feb 2024 14:28:02 EST news628266481 The tone and tuning of musical instruments has the power to manipulate our appreciation of harmony, new research shows. The findings challenge centuries of Western music theory and encourage greater experimentation with instruments from different cultures. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-pythagoras-wrong-universal-musical-harmonies.html Mathematics Social Sciences Tue, 27 Feb 2024 11:31:20 EST news628255860 Human coexistence depends on cooperation. Individuals have different motivations and reasons to collaborate, resulting in social dilemmas, such as the well-known prisoner's dilemma. Scientists from the Chatterjee group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) now present a new mathematical principle that helps to understand the cooperation of individuals with different characteristics. The results, published in PNAS, can be applied to economics or behavioral studies. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-math-social-dilemmas.html Mathematics Social Sciences Mon, 26 Feb 2024 15:00:02 EST news628159474 The market for collectible digital assets, or non-fungible tokens, is an interesting example of a physical system with a large scale of complexity, non-trivial dynamics, and an original logic of financial transactions. At the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow, its global statistical features have been analyzed more extensively. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-physicist-nft.html Mathematics Economics & Business Thu, 22 Feb 2024 16:21:03 EST news627841261 A mathematical historian at Trinity Wester University in Canada, has found use of a decimal point by a Venetian merchant 150 years before its first known use by German mathematician Christopher Clavius. In his paper published in the journal Historia Mathematica, Glen Van Brummelen describes how he found the evidence of decimal use in a volume called "Tabulae," and its significance to the history of mathematics. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-decimal-centuries-older-historians-thought.html Mathematics Tue, 20 Feb 2024 11:10:01 EST news627649647 The just-released report of the inquiry into price gouging and unfair pricing conducted by Allan Fels for the Australian Council of Trades Unions does more than identify the likely offenders. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-prices-high-ways-retail-pricing.html Mathematics Economics & Business Fri, 16 Feb 2024 12:11:05 EST news627307861 A new study into classroom practices, led by Dr. Steve Murphy, has found extensive research fails to uncover how teachers can remedy poor student engagement and perform well in math. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-engagement-student-math-scores.html Mathematics Education Thu, 15 Feb 2024 14:25:03 EST news627229501 One of the essential skills students need to master in primary school mathematics are "multiplication facts." https://phys.org/news/2024-02-multiplication-facts-essential-child-success.html Mathematics Education Tue, 13 Feb 2024 12:20:01 EST news627045919 When the NBA celebrated the start of its 75th season in fall 2021, it was clear that the 3-point shot adopted by the league in 1979-80 had transformed the sport. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-sports-deflation-nba-shot-lost.html Mathematics Social Sciences Mon, 12 Feb 2024 15:33:16 EST news626974390 Children's interest in, and competence perceptions of, mathematics are generally quite positive as they begin school, but turn less positive during the first three years. Changes in interest and self-concept are also associated with each other. In other words, if a child's interest fades, so does their competence perception, and vice versa. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-children-positive-attitude-mathematics-early.html Mathematics Education Mon, 12 Feb 2024 14:26:03 EST news626970361 Researchers from the University of Oulu, Finland, investigated how air pollution affects students' performance in matriculation exams, particularly in mathematical subjects. The study revealed that performance declines in exams involving thinking and memorization when fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels in the school's vicinity increase even slightly. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-air-pollution-impair-matriculation-exams.html Mathematics Education Thu, 08 Feb 2024 14:36:03 EST news626625361 Are cultural evolution rates similar across human societies? The emerging field of Cliodynamics uses mathematical models to study history. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-typical-cultural-evolution.html Mathematics Social Sciences Wed, 07 Feb 2024 12:33:39 EST news626531618 Conventional wisdom says that you should never leave money on the table when negotiating. But research in my field suggests this could be exactly the wrong approach. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-bargain-isnt-term-strategy-game.html Mathematics Economics & Business Tue, 06 Feb 2024 12:04:03 EST news626443441 In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." The race between innovation and obsolescence is like this. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-mathematical-obsolescence-insights-diverse-fields.html Mathematics Mon, 05 Feb 2024 10:57:23 EST news626353040 The springtime emergence of vast swarms of cicadas can be explained by a mathematical model of collective decision-making that has similarities to models describing stock market crashes. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-swarming-cicadas-stock-traders-wisdom.html Mathematics Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:11:44 EST news626008299 Mathematicians from RUDN University have created a new routing algorithm in the Internet of Things network. It optimally splits traffic, which improves network speed and reliability. The results were published in Mathematics. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-mathematicians-algorithm-iot-optimal-traffic.html Mathematics Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:25:02 EST news625940701 Have you ever wondered about the best way to pack a finite number of identical spheres into a shape-shifting flexible container, like a convex hull? https://phys.org/news/2024-01-simulations-tackle-finite-sphere-problem.html Mathematics Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:09:54 EST news625921792 Statisticians from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have introduced a new technique that accurately describes high-dimensional data using lower-dimensional smooth structures. This innovation marks a significant step forward in addressing the challenges of complex nonlinear dimension reduction. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-manifold-approach-high-dimensional-reduction.html Mathematics Mon, 29 Jan 2024 09:52:03 EST news625744321 Research by Social Statistics has highlighted new methods to improve the accuracy of cross-national surveys. Cross-national surveys run the risk of differential survey errors, where data collected vary in quality from country to country. The study is published in the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-methods-accuracy-national-surveys.html Mathematics Social Sciences Wed, 24 Jan 2024 13:31:03 EST news625325462 Although a typical mathematical task has a single correct answer, in some cases, the assumptions of a proposition determine its truth. Such relativity of truth plays a major role in the development of mathematics. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-task-principles-foster-students-recognition.html Mathematics Education Tue, 16 Jan 2024 11:07:22 EST news624625640 In fields such as physics and engineering, partial differential equations (PDEs) are used to model complex physical processes to generate insight into how some of the most complicated physical and natural systems in the world function. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-technique-efficiently-partial-differential-equations.html Mathematics Tue, 09 Jan 2024 12:50:24 EST news624027021 Our lives are becoming increasingly data driven. Our phones monitor our time and internet usage and online surveys discern our opinions and likes. These data harvests are used for telling us how well we've slept or what we might like to buy. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-pie.html Mathematics Education Mon, 08 Jan 2024 12:18:32 EST news623938709 Researchers from Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Colorado published a new Journal of Marketing study that proposes abandoning null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) as the default approach to statistical analysis and reporting. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-abandon-null-hypothesis-significance-default.html Mathematics Wed, 13 Dec 2023 11:00:27 EST news621687619 When middle school math teachers completed an online professional development program that uses artificial intelligence to improve their math knowledge and teaching skills, their students' math performance improved. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-ai-math-teachers-student-skills.html Mathematics Education Fri, 08 Dec 2023 15:30:01 EST news621256965 Young people in Germany are less proficient in mathematics, reading and science as compared to 2018. This is revealed in a PISA study. About one-third of the 15-year-olds tested achieved only a very low level of proficiency in at least one of the three subjects. The results confirmed a downward trend already in evidence in the preceding PISA studies. The mathematics and reading scores of German students are only at OECD average levels. They remain above that level only in natural sciences. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-german-youth-weaker-math-science.html Mathematics Education Tue, 05 Dec 2023 15:16:05 EST news621011761 The simple activity of walking through a room jumpstarts the neurons in the human brain. An explosion of electrochemical events or "neuronal spikes" appears at various times during the action. These spikes in activity, otherwise known as action potentials, are electrical impulses that occur when neurons communicate with one another. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-math-approach-insight-memory-formation.html Mathematics Tue, 05 Dec 2023 11:17:58 EST news620997475