mathematicians news stories on Newser

How This Woman Changed Physics

Matt Cantor — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:02:21 CDT

Her work may be the "backbone" of all modern physics; her key theorem could be as important as the theory of relativity; yet hardly anyone knows who Emmy Noether is. Celebrating her 130th birthday this month, Noether has suffered what the New York Times calls "chronic neglect"—including in the...

Mathematician Calculates Pi to 10T Digits

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:58:26 CDT

A Japanese man used his homemade computer to calculate the value of pi to 10 trillion digits, breaking the 5-trillion-digit record he himself set last August . Systems engineer Shigeru Kondo, 56, started crunching the numbers on a computer using a 48-terabyte hard drive in October and finished Sunday, the Telegraph...

Forget Pi, Here Comes Tau

Evann Gastaldo — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:30:05 CDT

You don't need to be a mathematician to appreciate pi: Children everywhere can tell you it's 3.14, and it's even celebrated on 3-14. But now experts are arguing that pi, which references the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, be replaced with a new constant known as...

Amateur Math Wiz Calculates Pi to 5T Digits

Kevin Spak — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:35:18 CDT

A Japanese math enthusiast has shattered the record for calculating the value of Pi. Shigeru Kondo, 55, spent roughly $17,800 building the homemade computer that helped him accomplish the feat—it boasted 32 terabytes-worth of hard drive, and had to have fans blown on it at all times to...

Math Genius Turns Down $1M Prize

Kevin Spak — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:03:00 CDT

Grigory Perelman has solved one of math’s most intractable problems, a century-old puzzle that carries a $1 million prize. There’s just one problem: Perelman doesn’t want the money, and he won’t say why. He won’t say anything, in fact. Ever since the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge validated his proof...

Scientist Smashes Pi Record

Nick McMaster — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:38:45 CST

A French scientist shattered the record for calculated digits of Pi, working the number out to 2.7 trillion decimal places—and he did it with a home PC. Fabrice Bellard beat the previous record by 100 billion digits, using a new software algorithm he claims is 20 times faster...

British PM Apologizes to Gay WWII Codebreaker

Rob Quinn — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:20:34 CDT

Gordon Brown has issued a posthumous apology to WWII codebreaking genius Alan Turing, the Guardian reports. Turing's work cracking German codes helped the Allies win the war, but he was later prosecuted for having a gay relationship. He was chemically castrated after being forced to choose between that or prison,...

A Zombie's Worst Enemy: Canadian Math Geeks

Wesley Oliver — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:41:00 CDT

Decades of terrorizing sleepy towns in grade-B horror flicks hasn't prepared zombies for their newest foe: Canadian math geeks. Scholars in Ottawa have formulated a mathematical model to combat a zombie outbreak, dismissing quarantines and cures: “The most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to hit...

Spooky Universal Pattern Captivates Math Experts

Mary Papenfuss — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:53:53 CDT

A fascinating mathematical similarity between infrastructure requirements of cities and the nutritional needs of different-sized animals has energized a field of study that is enthralling academics. Researchers have discovered that any measure of a city's infrastructure—from number of gas stations to miles of roadway—grows only in proportion to...