The mathematics of finding the love of your life based on the formula for winning a game show on TV: Without over complicating matters, mathematical analysis suggests that you should survey the scene for 37 per cent (1/e equals roughly 0.37) of the way through the period that you have set yourself to find a partner. Supposing that you start dating at the age of 16 and aim to ... Read full entry

I read almost five years ago about the excitement surrounding the "discovery" of a prime number that was over six-million digits long, but now that has been topped with the unearthing of a prime that is made up of some 13-million digits. Prime numbers make up the "periodic table" of numbers, the building blocks that combine to form all numbers. A prime number is a whole number divisible ... Read full entry

It looks like you are born to be accountant, or numbers person, and there's no avoiding your fate, I'm sorry. While it may be possible to acquire the skill of accurately estimating a quantity, say the number of slices in a loaf of bread, without actually counting them, a study of maths tests results show it is an ability most people are born with. Justin Halberda at Johns ... Read full entry

Fibonacci Numbers in Nature You can find examples of these Fibonacci numbers everywhere if only you look. This article points out instances of the sequence in flowers. Knowing the Fibonacci number of a certain flower may be useful for those who like doing the "he/she loves me, he/she loves me not" thing, so they know exactly where to start the recitation. Probably most of us have never taken the time to examine ... Read full entry

Apparently mathematicians the world over are celebrating the discovery of a new prime number. According to my mathematics directory, a prime number is divisible by itself and the number one.How many primes do you know?As for the newest member of the prime fraternity, it’s too long to bother writing out. It’s the largest such number yet found. I doubt (or is that hope) ... Read full entry