A remarkable story: 30 years of making mathematics accessible

Do you mean a whole magazine with nothing but articles about mathematics? Surely not! And it is called Tangente? Enough to send readers running… Yet thirty years later, the adventure continues!

It all began in 1987, when a small group of imaginative "maths fanatics" launched the first general-interest magazine devoted entirely to mathematical culture. It was a bold gamble, with more than a hint of the unknown from the outset, since they called it "Tangente, the mathematical adventure."

It has since blossomed into a galaxy of publications of all kinds, each orbiting mathematics and games.

At the outset, people from all walks of life (see box) came together to devise an editorial policy for that most unusual of objects: a magazine about mathematical culture. By pooling their efforts and their readerships, they ensured that issue 1 had been ordered by a thousand people before it had even appeared.

There is something moving about holding the very first issue: it has a color cover and glossy paper, but a rather unsophisticated layout using only two colors. Its scant table of contents appears in enormous type, as though its editors feared it might go unnoticed. Like today's issues, its fifty or so pages are already organized into sections whose themes have changed little over the years—proof that the formula has stood the test of time. "Bridges," one of the magazine's hallmarks, shows how deeply mathematics is woven into culture and how widely it reaches; "Knowledge" recounts both classic and more recent mathematical results; "Actions" explores the role of mathematics in numerous fields; and "Games and Problems" gives pride of place to challenges. Nor should we forget the double-page spread devoted to the curve of the month, the famous "Playmath" by the delightful Uncle Lulu. Topical "News in Brief" items enliven the whole, while "Book Reviews" cover recent publications. The issue even ends with the table of contents for the next one.

Leafing through this commemorative issue also brings the occasional wave of nostalgia: the "reverse Polish notation" used by the first programmable HP calculators, or Hatier's launch of the first "Depann'Lycéen" server on Minitel.

But although Tangente belongs to "Generation Y," it has grown and evolved, changing in both structure and distribution from a magazine for high-school students into a true general-interest magazine. "Guaranteed action, travel in first and second class, first-rate connections, long-distance discounts, 5,000 reservations—and room still available," issue 5 announced with a touch of humor. The gamble paid off, and although the publication gradually changed, Tangente's spirit of "mathematics off the beaten track" never faded over the years. Just as issue 2 featured an encounter with the writer Michel Tournier to discuss his fascination with numbers, Tangente has never hesitated to publish special features such as "Mathematics and Sport" (no. 168), "Mathematics and Light" (no. 164), or, most recently, " Mathematics and Cinema " (no. 178).