A year after he started his Ph.D. in mathematics at McGill University, Matt Bowen had a problem. “I took my qualifying exams and did absolutely horribly on them,” he said. Bowen was sure that his ...

An example of a linear sequence. A list of numbers or diagrams that are in a particular order is called a sequence close sequenceA sequence is a set of numbers that follow a certain rule. For example, ...

Remember the graph paper you used at school, the kind that’s covered with tiny squares? It’s the perfect illustration of what mathematicians call a “periodic tiling of space”, with shapes covering an ...

Many years ago, a friend showed me this bit of mathematical trivia that thrilled us both no end: And then there’s the one I believed, for a while, was my own totally innovative discovery (it wasn’t).