mathematical

Math. The very word can conjure painful memories: long division, square roots, the quadratic equation.

Not only do many of us not like math; we're also not very good at it. In an international test of 15-year-olds, the U.S. placed 24th out of 64 countries.

"We don't currently, in this country, have a cultural expectation that yeah, you're going to learn math just like you're going to learn reading," said Glen Whitney. "It's OK to not be good at math."

Glen Whitney is good at math. He's got a Ph.D. in it, and is trying to change the way we think about one of our least favorite subjects. … Read more

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project has scored its 14th consecutive victory, discovering the largest prime number so far.

The number, 2 to the power of 57,885,161 minus 1, is a digit that's 17,425,170 digits long. That's big enough that if you want to see the full text, you'll have to brace yourself for a 22.5MB download.

GIMPS, a cooperative project splitting the search across thousands of independent computers, announced the find yesterday after it had been confirmed by other checks. At present, there are 98,980 people and 574 … Read more

MyScript Calculator (iOS|Android) is an app for both iOS and Android that lets you perform mathematical operations with freehand writing of expressions on your touch screen. This app won the Mobile App Showdown award at CES 2013 and after some time spent using it, it's easy to see why.

The simple-looking interface mimics the look of graph paper. In the top right of the screen you have buttons for undo and redo, and a trash can for when you want to clear the screen completely. In the upper left you can open a menu where you can access … Read more

Google released the stable version of Chrome 24 today, adding support for IndexedDB for apps that work better offline, mathematics formulas formatted with MathML, and faster JavaScript.

The new version also comes with a range of security fixes, including two $1,000 bounties and one $4,000 bounty paid to people who found high-severity vulnerabilities. Because Chrome automatically downloads updates by default in part to patch holes as fast as possible, people just need to restart the browser to update it.

IndexedDB, under development for years, is geared to store data for use even if a Web site or Web … Read more

The Moebius House doesn't look or sound real. It's designed to be built on a Korean island in a forest growing on volcanic rock. It's inspired by the unending brain teaser known as a Mobius strip.

Design firm Planning Korea has tackled some creative projects in the past, including designs for a mega-bridge over the Han River and a cocoon-shaped house that looks like it could hide a giant insect inside. It's no wonder those same architects saw a Mobius strip as a good basis for a house.… Read more

Perhaps you, like me, enjoy a glass of wine. Especially if it's a larger glass, at least half full of good wine.

Perhaps you, riding on your usual wave of intelligence and sophistication, believe that you can always taste the difference between cheap wine that deserves a box or a hole in the ground, and expensive wine that deserves another year or two in a dimly lit cellar.

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in England, believes the mathematical likelihood is that you have no idea what you're talking about.

Wiseman, you see, decided that … Read more

Wolfram Research has released Mathematica 8, bringing some rudimentary human-language skills to the mathematics and scientific software by building in some abilities of the Wolfram Alpha search engine.

It's an unusual combination. Mathematica can produce stunning graphical displays and dig into the murkiest data sets, but only for those who learn its control language.

"Free-form linguistics understands human language and translates it into syntax--a breakthrough in usability," said Chief Executive Stephen Wolfram in a statement.

Well, the Alpha language can't exactly give Mathematica the ability to chat at cocktail parties. But it can understand the command "pi 200 digits" … Read more

Google has finally announced the winners of its Project 10^100 contest, which will award five different projects a total of $10 million.

The contest was first announced back in 2008 but has taken quite a long time to reach its conclusion, after Google changed the project to focus on "themes" rather than specific ideas. Sixteen themes were selected exactly a year ago, and the public was given an opportunity to vote on the themes most worthy of funding.

Organizations then submitted specific proposals for the five most popular ideas, and the list of winners follows below:

• The … Read more

Scientific calculators are essential laptop utilities for engineers, scientists, researchers, builders, teachers, and students. College Scientific Calculator 27 from Tvalx is a fine choice to fill the bill. It offers precise calculations to 63 digits; hyperbolic, trigonometric, and inverse functions; memory for frequently used figures; and the capability to store and reuse calculations and formulas, print them, or save them as text files.

College Scientific Calculator 27's interface is different from most desktop calculator applications, which usually try to mimic the look and feel of a handheld calculator as closely as possible. This program's interface more closely resembles … Read more