History and Culture
History of mathematics and cultural connections
The difficult question of forecasting | Tangente
How can we predict likely changes in temperature and precipitation twenty years, fifty years or a century from now?
Save fuel: bet on tires! | Tangente
In an unusual turn of events, the Industry category of the 2018 European Inventor Award, presented by the European Patent Office, has gone to a French mathematician.
An overview of drinking water – maths brief | Tangente
Everyone knows, or should know, that the amount of water on our planet never changes: whether it takes the form of rain, clouds or even glaciers, it is still the same irreplaceable H2O molecule, one of the pillars of life on Earth.
Measuring temperature – Mathematical brief | Tangente
The Earth's average temperature is rising. But how is it measured?
The Leslie model
Modeling changes in an animal population is a frequently studied topic in mathematics and biology. But how can we account for the fact that individuals produce different numbers of offspring depending on their age? The Leslie model addresses these questions.
Models for responsible water management
Who is entitled to use and manage the waters of rivers that cross several States? How can this precious resource be shared equitably and sustainably? Multi-criteria programming, a powerful decision-support tool, offers a rational solution to these questions.
Blake and Mortimer: mathematics in the comics
Scientists are rare among comic-book heroes. Mathematicians are rarer still! One of the most famous scientists among them is Professor Philip Mortimer, from the "Blake and Mortimer" series. Let's examine his relationship with the queen of the sciences.
Breaking the ADFGVX cipher in 1914–18
For the second phase of the German spring offensives of 1918, the Germans added the letter V to the ADFGX cipher. But Georges Painvin broke the new cipher within hours… paving the way for final victory. The new system, though apparently more sophisticated, was actually weaker!
Artillery detection: trigonometry in World War I
During the Great War, artillery caused two-thirds of all casualties. Locating enemy batteries was therefore important so that counter-battery fire could silence them. Surprisingly, the search leads to an old geometry problem!
Mathematicians killed at the front: Gâteaux, Levi and others
Mathematicians, too, paid a heavy price in the Great War, leaving the scientific world with irreparable losses.
The Great War and European mathematics
The deadly conflict of the First World War shattered international academic cooperation. It also took a devastating human toll, killing many scientists who had seemed destined for brilliant careers. Finally, it profoundly altered the place of mathematics in France.
The Archimedean hairspring at the heart of watchmaking
Once again, we turn to a "spiral"—not in a field or on a canvas, but… inside a watch.
Houria Lafrance honored for promoting mathematics
A tireless mathematics popularizer has just been honored. Houria Lafrance, president of the association "Les maths en scène," has been appointed a Knight of the National Order of Merit.
Emmanuel Houdard: Walloon of the Year for mathematics
The 2017 Walloon of the Year Award has just been presented to mathematics teacher Emmanuel Houdart, director of the Maison des maths in Quaregnon, Hainaut, Belgium, near the French border.
André-Louis Cholesky: soldier-scholar and algebraist
In numerical analysis, the Cholesky method is a celebrated example of a scientific discovery made in one field—military geodesy—that went on to find applications in an ever-growing number of others.
The weight of maths: the economic impact of mathematics | Tangente
Statistical fluctuations: beware small samples
Extracting knowledge from a mass of homogeneous data is the province of statistics. Yet it is quite an art: the conclusions must be treated with care! Small fluctuations around the mean can invalidate an entire line of reasoning. Let us learn how to spot them.
A guided tour of the Panthéon of mathematics
Visiting Paris with your family or a school group, you may be looking for mathematically themed attractions. The Panthéon is unlikely to spring to mind… Yet this monument celebrating the nation's great figures is full of surprises! Follow the guide.
Villani–Torossian report: 21 measures for mathematics
The press has covered it extensively: a report has just been submitted to the Minister of National Education, recommending 21 measures to improve mathematics teaching in France. We take a closer look.
The ruler: history of a measuring instrument
Let's rediscover this object we think we know...