A mathematician has solved a 200-year-old maths problem after figuring out a way to crack higher-degree polynomial equations without using radicals or irrational numbers. The method developed by ...

Originally defined as the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter, pi — written as the Greek letter π — ...

The ancient scholar Hippasus of Metapontum was punished with death for his discovery of irrational numbers—or at least that’s the legend. What actually happened in the fifth century B.C.E. is far from ...

This article is adapted from Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else by Jordan Ellenberg. © Penguin Press 2021 ...