A few minutes into a 2018 talk at the University of Michigan, Ian Tobasco picked up a large piece of paper and crumpled it into a seemingly disordered ball of chaos. He held it up for the audience to ...

This is the second in a two-part series. Part one can be found here. The debate over what early math should look like and what should be included in the Common Core State Standards for math is one of ...

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 ...

Simple patterns can be found almost everywhere in the environment, from drain covers to leaves and road markings, say Julie Mountain and Felicity Robinson Patterns are essential to building ...

Pattern formation in physical, biological, and sociological systems has been studied for many years. One area where it has been of growing interest is in crime modeling. Pattern formation in physical, ...

Mathematics is visible everywhere in nature, even where we are not expecting it. It can help explain the way galaxies spiral, a seashell curves, patterns replicate, and rivers bend. Even subjective ...

Frank A. Farris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

In 1999, while sitting at a bus stop in Cuernavaca, Mexico, a Czech physicist named Petr Šeba noticed young men handing slips of paper to the bus drivers in exchange for cash. It wasn’t organized ...