ELISABETH BUSSER
226 articles published in Tangente
History and CultureN°217Apr 10, 20242024 Abel Prize awarded to French mathematician Michel Talagrand
The fifth French laureate to receive the Abel Prize, mathematics' equivalent of the Nobel Prize, Michel Talagrand was born in 1952 and spent his career at the CNRS, developing an early interest in random processes.
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Math for everyoneN°217Apr 09, 2024Integers: stars of equations
In ancient Egypt, puzzles and problems were already being framed in terms of equations over the integers. Although the methods used to solve them have changed, the underlying question remains the same. These equations would go on to transform mathematics.
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History and CultureN°215Dec 21, 2023Winners of the 2023 Tangente Awards
Since 2010, the Tangente Club has used the Tangente Awards to honor creative works that showcase mathematics. The winners receive a work of art. The awards ceremony took place at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris on December 3, 2023, during Tangente Day.
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Math for everyoneN°214Oct 17, 2023The origin of the rhombus
Many mathematical terms have Greek or Latin roots. But the word "losange", the French for rhombus, is something of a puzzle: its origin is disputed.
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History and CultureN°214Oct 17, 2023On the road
Both unusual—since it does not usually rest on its "base"—and harmonious, as it is a quadrilateral with four equal sides, the rhombus appeals to graphic artists, advertisers and other designers: it appears in puzzles, games, road signs, logos…
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History and CultureN°214Oct 16, 2023A well-deserved medal
The MATh.en.JEANS association has won the CNRS science outreach medal
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Math for everyoneN°214Oct 13, 2023Lightning calculators
How do lightning calculators use root-extraction algorithms so quickly?
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Math for everyoneN°214Oct 13, 2023Extracting square roots: the main algorithms
Calculating square roots "with a quill," as people said in the 18th century, is a challenging art with many facets. Let's explore some famous methods and see why they work.
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Math for everyoneN°213Aug 25, 2023Great names for great numbers
Many mathematicians have lent their names to numbers in common use. "Very large" numbers have names too: a way had to be found to represent them as well, since they come up in several fields, from combinatorics to mathematical logic!
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Math for everyoneN°87Aug 23, 2023The many uses of the triangle inequality
The word "inequalities" often brings arithmetic or algebra to mind. But inequalities also have their place in geometry! The most famous of them, the celebrated triangle inequality, still has more than one trick up its sleeve.
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History and CultureN°211May 02, 2023The golden ratio: mathematical properties
An evocative subtitle, "La proportion magique" (The magic proportion), a foreword by Cédric Villani, a preface by Étienne Ghys, a glossy cover, high-quality paper, meticulous geometric drawings and understated but well-chosen illustrations: everything about this book invites you to open it.
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History and CultureN°211Apr 23, 2023Vaughan Jones, a "pure genius" of knot theory
If ever there was a knot theorist, it was Vaughan Jones. This New Zealand-American mathematician, a 1990 Fields Medalist, is now renowned worldwide for his contributions to knot theory. French mathematician Alain Connes (born in 1947 and himself a Fields Medalist) described his discoveries as "work of pure genius".
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