Breaking down the big numbers.
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Today’s news can often involve mind-bogglingly large numbers. A math professor shares some tricks for understanding it all.
Hidden Figures, the movie, showcased the importance of Black women in mathematics.
(Twentieth Century Fox)
Mathematics departments in Canada have a poor record on equity, diversity and inclusivity says a gay mathematics professor. Here he speaks about the hopeful changes he sees coming.
Navdeep Bains, Canada’s
innovation, science and economic development minister, takes part in a technology event in Ottawa in May 2017. The Canadian government has started up a $1.26-billion fund to support innovation-related business investments.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
If leaders of educational institutions are concerned about the employability of graduates, they should avoid over-investing in STEM subjects and stop snubbing liberal arts.
There are plenty of opportunities when you are out shopping to include your child in discussions about financial decisions.
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Learning about real-life money decisions from a young age helps kids learn maths and improves their financial literacy.
If the government expanded the new $73 million Student Work-Integrated Learning program to all students it could help tackle Canada’s most intractable social problems — such as homelessness, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, affordable housing, social cohesion and intercultural understanding.
A new government program will create 10,000 work placements for undergraduates in only business and STEM subjects. Why not fund students to innovate in the social sector too?
How can geometry track with our political values?
Pixabay
Gerrymandering is being hotly debated around the US. Can math help us figure out how to divide the country up fairly?
Many scientific studies aren’t holding up in further tests.
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Scientists have a big problem: Many psychological studies don’t hold up to scrutiny. Is it time to redefine statistical significance?
We need to build algorithms that act ethically.
BEST-BACKGROUNDS/Shutterstock
Creating an ethical machine learning system is no simple task, but maths can help.
We’re living longer than ever. But how many of those years will we be healthy?
Have a nice day photo/Shutterstock.com
How many healthy years of life do you have ahead before you become unhealthy – and then die? One model tries to find the answer.
Bakhshali manuscript.
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
High school students can blame ancient India for quadratic equations and calculus.
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Turning zero from a punctuation mark into a number paved the way for everything from algebra to algorithms.
Michael Shannon and Michael Stuhlbarg in the film “The Shape of Water.”
(Kerry Hayes /Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved)
This year’s Toronto International Film Festival is a further example of how science, technology, engineering and math illuminate movies – and, in the process, our minds.
Can you cut it in this math problem?
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Dreading math class as you head back into school? Never fear: Try these tips from famed mathematician George Pólya.
Peter Nightingale (left) and Ian Gent with two of the eight queens needed for the ‘8-queen’ problem.
Stuart Nicol/University of St Andrews
Solving the P vs NP problem is one of mathematics’ most intractable puzzles, and there’s US$1m prize money for the first to do so.
There’s much more to mathematics than computation, and that’s where more contemporary technologies can improve primary mathematics.
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Many parents are demanding less technology use in the classroom due to the amount of screen time children get at home. This story explores whether maths education and technology go hand in hand.
The Plimpton 322 tablet.
UNSW/Andrew Kelly
A 3,700-year old Babylonian clay tablet reveals an ancient method of constructing right-angled triangles that makes it the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table.
An ion-trap used for quantum computing research in the Quantum Control Laboratory at the University of Sydney.
Michael Biercuk
Quantum computing is being described as “just around the corner”. Is it?
Nature gave us ten fingers, so it makes sense to count to ten. But what happens when we run out of fingers?
Flickr/Bethan
Why are there 60 minutes in an hour, and not 10? Why do we count up to 10, anyway? Quentin, age five, wants to know.
Edward Teshmaker Busk.
On the trail of the men of Britain’s Royal Aircraft Factory, who gave their lives to help create the world’s first air force.
Jacob Lund/Shutterstock.com
Humans behave like atoms when viewed from a distance.