Scientific American

This Number System Beats Binary, But Most Computers Can’t Use It

The Babylonians used separate combinations of two symbols to represent every single number from 1 to 59. That sounds pretty confusing, doesn’t it? Our decimal system seems simple by comparison, with ...
Gizmodo

A Brief History of Our Obsession With Prime Numbers—and Where the Hunt Goes Next

A shard of smooth bone etched with irregular marks dating back 20,000 years puzzled archaeologists until they noticed something unique – the etchings, lines like tally marks, may have represented ...
The Conversation

Prime numbers, the building blocks of mathematics, have fascinated for centuries − now technology is revolutionizing the search for them

Jeremiah Bartz owns shares in Nvidia. A shard of smooth bone etched with irregular marks dating back 20,000 years puzzled archaeologists until they noticed something unique – the etchings, lines like ...
The Conversation

How number systems shape our thinking and what it means for learning, language and culture

Jean-Charles Pelland's work has been made possible by financial support from the ‘QUANTA: Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification’ project, which has received funding from the European ...
Scientific American

Zero Is Foundational to Modern Mathematics. But It Was Rejected for Centuries

I’m a zero at mental arithmetic. It’s true—I struggle with this skill—but I want to focus on the phrase itself. In our language, we often equate zero with something negative. But zero is the only real ...
SlashGear

These Countries Have Ridiculously Long Phone Numbers (And There's An Interesting Reason Why)

Making a phone call is simple. In essence, one just needs to dial the number, hit the call button, and wait for the other person to respond. With an Apple iPhone, it is even simpler because it has a ...