ELISABETH BUSSER
226 articles published in Tangente
History and CultureN°199Apr 19, 2021Portraits of women mathematicians
To honor Maryam Mirzakhani, International Day of Women in Mathematics is observed on May 12, her birthday.
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Math for everyoneN°199Apr 19, 2021The emergence of Cartesian geometry
Greek geometers were the model for mathematicians when Descartes revolutionized geometry by introducing coordinates, making it possible to approach geometry through algebraic methods. Cartesian geometry was born.
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Math for everyoneN°199Apr 16, 2021Finding your position at sea
How can you determine your position when sailing offshore or along the coast? With land in sight, one or two landmarks are enough. On the open sea, sailors’ ingenuity led to the invention of sophisticated instruments such as the sextant and the Cras plotter. A little geometry is essential to use them.
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Math for everyoneN°199Apr 16, 2021How not to lose your bearings
Since antiquity, navigators have sought to find their position at sea, first developing instruments and then maps before the practice was standardized in the 19th century. This practical and strategic use of mathematics endured for centuries before other tools superseded it.
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Math for everyoneN°198Feb 02, 2021Hervé Le Tellier: a “maths guy” who won the Prix Goncourt!
With Hervé Le Tellier, who has just received the prestigious Prix Goncourt for his novel L’Anomalie, where logic and magic jostle for space, literature meets mathematics.
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History and CultureN°197Dec 04, 2020Squares in art
Several artists have taken an interest in the square in order to explore its geometry
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History and CultureN°197Dec 04, 2020Proof desperately wanted
One hundred thousand results are stated worldwide each year—but how many of them are proved? In number theory, for example, many problems remain unsolved. Some are well known to enthusiasts, others less so...
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Math for everyoneN°76Nov 06, 2020Musical iterations
The first iterative process in music gave rise to the Pythagorean scale. Since then, recursive processes have been widely used in musical composition, from Johann Sebastian Bach to contemporary music. Their use is limited only by composers’ imaginations!
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History and CultureN°196Oct 16, 2020When an error bears fruit
Many mathematicians have made mistakes, whether through inadvertence, a miscalculation, a flaw in a proof, or a temporarily mistaken belief.
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History and CultureN°196Oct 15, 2020Little square puzzles
Square-grid number puzzles appeal to enthusiasts of recreational mathematics. This selection comes from the "Affaire de logique" column in the newspaper Le Monde.
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History and CultureN°196Oct 13, 2020Morley's "miracle"
A symmetry appearing out of nowhere, an equilateral triangle emerging amid the trisectors of a completely arbitrary triangle: that is the whole "miracle" of Morley and his theorem. The many proofs of this beautiful property are marvels of geometry and trigonometry.
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History and CultureN°195Jul 14, 2020Karine Chemla wins the Otto Neugebauer Prize
Awarded every four years by the European Mathematical Society (EMS), the Otto Neugebauer Prize recognizes outstanding research in the history of mathematics.
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