https://phys.org/science-news/mathematics en-us The latest news on mathematics, math, math science, mathematical science and math technology. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Economics and physics are distinct fields of study, yet some researchers have been bridging the two together to tackle complex economics problems in innovative ways. This resulted in the establishment of an interdisciplinary research field, known as econophysics, which specializes in solving problems rooted in economics using physics theories and experimental methods. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-validation-lillo-mike-farmer-large.html Mathematics Economics & Business Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:56:53 EST news620560608 Newly published research reexamines the evaluation of scientific findings, proposing a network-based methodology for contextualizing a publication's impact. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-effective-method-impact-scientific.html Mathematics Other Mon, 20 Nov 2023 16:51:20 EST news619721473 What influences the choices we make, and what role does the behavior of others have on these choices? These questions underlie many aspects of human behavior, including the products we buy, fashion trends, and even the breed of pet we choose as our companion. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-master-chess-players-gambits.html Mathematics Social Sciences Thu, 16 Nov 2023 09:49:05 EST news619350541 Math experts have developed new ways to provide further evidence for human-caused global heating and predict how close Earth is to reaching dangerous climate tipping points. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-climate-easier-math-breakthrough.html Mathematics Fri, 03 Nov 2023 09:06:04 EDT news618221161 We've all been there: staring at a math test with a problem that seems impossible to solve. What if finding the solution to a problem took almost a century? For mathematicians who dabble in Ramsey theory, this is very much the case. In fact, little progress had been made in solving Ramsey problems since the 1930s. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-math-problem-century.html Mathematics Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:45:03 EDT news617982301 A pair of mathematicians, Kevin Course and Prasanth Nair at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies, has developed a new state-estimation method to create efficient forecasts without the need for the details of an underlying model. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-state-estimation-method-efficient-underlying.html Mathematics Thu, 12 Oct 2023 11:21:57 EDT news616328514 A large team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions across Europe, has found evidence backing up work by Persi Diaconis in 2007 in which he suggested tossed coins are more likely to land on the same side they started on, rather than on the reverse. The team conducted experiments designed to test the randomness of coin flipping and posted their results on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-flipped-coins-fair-thought.html Mathematics Wed, 11 Oct 2023 12:10:01 EDT news616244808 Researchers Jayne Spiller and Camilla Gilmore at the Center for Mathematical Cognition, University of Loughborough, U.K., have investigated the intersection of sleep and mathematical memory, finding that sleep after learning improves recall. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-mathematical-bedtime-stories-memory.html Mathematics Education Tue, 03 Oct 2023 10:20:02 EDT news615547087 Tens of thousands of handwritten pages by one of the 20th century's greatest mathematicians, Alexander Grothendieck, many of which the eccentric genius penned while living as a hermit, were unveiled in France on Friday. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-hermit-eccentric-french-math-genius.html Mathematics Fri, 29 Sep 2023 12:54:05 EDT news615210840 Patterns of chemical interactions are thought to create patterns in nature such as stripes and spots. A new study shows that the mathematical basis of these patterns also governs how sperm tail moves. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-sperm-patterns-believed-dictate-zebra.html Mathematics Wed, 27 Sep 2023 05:00:01 EDT news614966476 It seems there's a five-letter word describing what many players of the wildly popular Wordle puzzle do daily as they struggle to find a target word within six tries. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-wordle-users-mathematics-expert.html Mathematics Social Sciences Mon, 25 Sep 2023 15:40:01 EDT news614874725 New research has used machine learning to find the properties of atomic pieces of geometry, in pioneering work that could drive the development of new results in mathematics. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-machine-unravels-mysteries-atomic-geometry.html Mathematics Mon, 25 Sep 2023 12:21:58 EDT news614863315 Have you ever tried to do a brainteaser in which you have to connect the dots to make the outline of a house in one continuous stroke without going back over your lines? Or perhaps you've clicked on Facebook's friend recommendations or played Settlers of Catan. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-dots-mathematicians-hot-problem.html Mathematics Mon, 18 Sep 2023 13:57:08 EDT news614264224 A major new study has revealed that American teenagers are more likely than any other nationality to brag about their math ability. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-teenagers-exaggerate-math-abilities.html Mathematics Education Thu, 14 Sep 2023 19:00:01 EDT news613915822 Richard Schwartz, a mathematician at Brown University has found a solution to the problem of how small a Möbius band can be made without intersecting itself—at least for a smooth piece of paper. The paper is published on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-mathematician-mbius-band-aspect-ratio.html Mathematics Wed, 13 Sep 2023 09:22:08 EDT news613815720 Getting in sync can be exhilarating when you're dancing in rhythm with other people or clapping along in an audience. Fireflies too know the joy of synchronization, timing their flashes together to create a larger display to attract mates. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-fireflies-brain-cells-dancers-synchronization.html Mathematics Thu, 07 Sep 2023 10:48:08 EDT news613302482 Knots are used in all sorts of ways, every day. They ensure safety both indoors and for outdoor activities such as boating or sailing, are used as surgical sutures, as decorations, and they can even be found at nanoscales in nature, for example in DNA molecules. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-team-thousands.html Mathematics Tue, 05 Sep 2023 15:02:03 EDT news613144916 In a remarkable breakthrough in the field of mathematical science, Professor Kyudong Choi from the Department of Mathematical Sciences at UNIST has provided an irrefutable proof that certain spherical vortices exist in a stable state. This discovery holds significant implications for predicting weather anomalies and advancing weather prediction technologies. The research is published in the journal Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-mathematical-proof-reveals-insights-typhoon.html Mathematics Tue, 05 Sep 2023 10:06:02 EDT news613127161 Calculus is the study of change. Calculus teaching methods, however, have changed little in recent decades. Now, FIU research shows a new model could improve calculus instruction nationwide. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-revamped-calculus.html Mathematics Education Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:25:27 EDT news612782721 Exciting a brain region using electrical noise stimulation can help improve mathematical learning in those who struggle with the subject, according to a new study from the Universities of Surrey and Oxford, Loughborough University, and Radboud University in The Netherlands. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-brain-key-boosting-math.html Mathematics Education Thu, 31 Aug 2023 14:22:18 EDT news612710532