Math for everyone
Mathematical content accessible to everyone
French economy boosted by mathematics | Tangente
Mathematics has a major socioeconomic impact in France. AMIES proves it!
Unemployment and energy supply: prob... | Tangente
Discover mathematician Hermann Laurent's proposal for putting unemployed people to work.
Emergence in economics | Tangente
Economics, too, has emergent properties! They create order despite apparent disorder, as if through "self-organization."
Inventory management in a stochastic setting
From small bakeries to hypermarkets, retailers face dilemmas with every product they sell. How much should they make available to customers? Too little, at the risk of losing sales, or too much, at the risk of being left with unsold goods? And, of course, at what price? A probabilistic model can help them decide.
An introduction to econometrics
Economic models are only simplified representations of reality. Econometrics provides a set of tools for estimating the parameters of these models and testing their validity. The trouble is, the closer we want to get to reality, the more complex the model becomes…
Formulas for public procurement
Fair competition, which follows from the Declaration of the Rights of Man, is, fortunately, the fundamental principle governing all public procurement. Yet the freedom to choose scoring formulas inevitably introduces an element of subjectivity.
What consumers prefer
How can we model the behavior of a particular consumer? Their tastes, needs and available budget all help shape their choice. The mathematical concepts of preference, indifference and utility should help us...
Money and inflation: two inseparable concepts
The desire for wealth fuels many people's ambitions and sometimes dictates their behavior. While no one now doubts the usefulness of money in our modern way of life (!), who knows its history? And how is money linked to inflation?
Economics in question
What is economics? Can it be regarded as a science? What role do mathematical models play in its analysis and development? Can they counterbalance decisions based exclusively on a dogmatic approach?
From derivatives to elasticity
It is often useful to study the relationships between different economic quantities. One such question is how the quantity demanded of a good depends on its unit price…
When economics illustrates matrix algebra
Economists' data can often be arranged in rectangular tables that can be manipulated according to precise rules tied to the mathematical concept of linearity. Matrix algebra can thus be illustrated with concrete examples drawn from economics.
The poverty threshold
Most developed countries have policies to help the poorest members of society. This raises the question of what we mean by "poor." Should the definition be absolute or relative? Should it refer only to income, or should assets and place of residence also be taken into account?
Understanding gross domestic product
There are many ways to measure a nation's wealth. Calculating gross domestic product is one of them, but other, complementary indicators are also used.
Antoine Cournot: from mathematics to economics
Economics did not always have much to do with mathematics, and for a long time its reasoning was verbal, until the arrival of thinkers such as Antoine Cournot, who brought rationality into the field in the 19th century.
The Bauhaus between art and science: geometry and creation | Tangente
Right now, several exhibitions in Paris and elsewhere in France are not to be missed
A taste for maths: events programme | Tangente
The City of Paris libraries are devoting their 2017 programme, particularly in January and February, to the world of mathematics
Optimization problems in mountainous terrain
Geometrically, optimizing a function of two variables means locating special points on its graph: the "highest" and "lowest" points. This search can be illustrated by exploring a… mountain landscape.
The geometer's art
Geometry has its secrets: it often allows us to solve extremum problems without resorting to analysis or algebra. It also gives us an opportunity to revisit some classic results in triangle geometry.
Other optimizations: PERT and beyond | Tangente
Optimization techniques are sometimes hidden in other subjects. Here are a few examples
Imre Lakatos and mathematics education | Tangente
The Hungarian mathematician Imre Lakatos set out his perspective in his best-known work, Proofs and Refutations. He illustrated his argument using Euler's formula.