Maths for everyone
Articles at an accessible level on varied mathematical topics
A maths special issue for everyone | Tangente
When a general-interest weekly such as Le Point publishes a special issue devoted entirely to mathematics, the Tangente editorial team can only be pleased—particularly because it addresses issues and values close to our hearts, as the titles of its three sections show: "Maths for everyone", "Maths are everywhere" and "Practical maths".
Self-referential word games | Tangente
Words, too, are fertile ground for self-referential curiosities. Here are a few.
Magical divisibility tests: maths and conjuring | Tangente
The mathemagician sometimes uses divisibility to dazzle the audience. Before turning to the solutions, try to work out for yourself the mathematics behind the tricks that follow. Amaze your friends with magic while doing mathematics!
Textual self-reference: Hofstadter | Tangente
Wordplay is fertile ground for self-reference. Examples can be found in Douglas Hofstadter's books (see Tangente 131, 2009, and Tangente 154, 2013), as well as in countless anonymous creations (found online, for instance), whether apocryphal or well documented. Here is a selection.
Pick up your pens: maths writing competition | Tangente
The publication of Daniel Bouix's article "Coloring the Tiles of the Plane" gives us an opportunity to remind readers that the 2019 Best Article Award competition is now under way. Entrants have until September 30 to submit their work.
Maths Night 2019 in Tours and Blois | Tangente
For its fifth edition, the Maths Night festival, held in the Loire Valley, will feature talks, shows, exhibitions and films, all with plenty of humor and conviviality.
South America: Fondation Cartier's ode to geometry | Tangente
Until 24 February 2019, Fondation Cartier is exploring the presence of geometry in art across South America, from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, spanning pre-Columbian and contemporary art as well as Indigenous American cultures.
Michel Serfati: a passion for the history of | Tangente
Mathematician, philosopher and historian of science, Michel Serfati, who died on September 30 last year, was all three.
Pierre Duchet: research in action | Tangente
Mathematician Pierre Duchet died on October 27 last year at his home in Mexico City. A friend of the editorial team at Tangente, this specialist in combinatorics, discrete mathematics and especially graph theory was always eager to share his work with younger generations.
Binary notation for representing data
A computer's memory can store only 0s and 1s. Despite this limitation, we now use it to store numbers, text, photographs and even videos. This encoding relies on a host of standards and conventions that are well worth knowing.
2019: a random year | Tangente
Randomness is the theme of the 2019 mathematical calendar published by Presses universitaires de Grenoble and edited by Ana Rechtman Bulajich.
Speaking numbers
Do you speak numbers? Writing numbers is perfectly automatic, but reading them raises several questions.
Base 60 still dictates our schedules | Tangente
The revolutionaries introduced the decimal system for weights and measures, and despite a few Anglo-Saxon holdouts, it prevailed across the globe. Yet bases 12 and 60 live on, notably in the measurement of angles and the passage of time…
Two numeral systems you were spared | Tangente
Numeral systems are a matter of conventions dictated by history and efficiency. But what if...
Writing large numbers: not so simple! | Tangente
Even with a positional decimal system, not everyone writes large numbers in the same way.
Pre-Columbian numeral systems | Tangente
In which we discover that South American civilizations did not wait for Christopher Columbus before adopting numeral systems
Telling the story of numbers
Describing quantities in terms other than "few" or "many," comparing them, manipulating them without touching or seeing them… All this depends on numbers. Numbers have preoccupied humankind since prehistoric times. So what is the story of the invention that changed the face of the world: numeral systems?
The Klein bottle
The bottle named after Felix Klein is a classic of topology, yet its mathematical properties are still sometimes poorly understood. Let's delve beneath the surface to uncover its connection with the Möbius strip.
Coloring the plane: when geometry gets involved | Tangente
For plane coloring, we already knew that four colors were enough to color any map so that no two neighboring countries ever had the same color.
Knot theory according to Jean-Michel Othoniel | Tangente
Jean-Michel Othoniel is an original sculptor in more ways than one. His exhibition "Géométries amoureuses" was held in Sète (Hérault) in 2017, and his current exhibition "Face à l'obscurité" has just closed at the MAMC in Saint-Etienne (Loire).