Maths for everyone
Articles at an accessible level on varied mathematical topics
Maths through song | Tangente
"Today, we're doing maths!" That is the message Adrien Deslypper and Stéphane Delobel (along with a few accomplices), two high school teachers from Hauts-de-France, bring to their students every day.
PISA: the plunge | Tangente
Released in December, the results of the 2022 PISA survey (the Programme for International Student Assessment, which assesses 15-year-olds) show a sharp decline in French students’ mathematics performance.
Mathematics, the key to the future | Tangente
More than 180 leading figures from the worlds of science, business and industry warned in the December 5 issue of Le Monde that France is losing ground as a scientific and mathematical power.
Inflation: a scam? | Tangente
Inflation is falling, but prices are rising: are we being lied to? No—sadly, this is normal! Saying that the price index is rising means that "the" function representing prices is increasing.
An adventure in fifteen videos | Tangente
Directors Cassia Sakarovitch and Gwenael Mulsant have set themselves a challenge: to make short videos about mathematical concepts from the specialist mathematics curriculum in the final two years of French high school.
Fibonacci for rabbits | Tangente
These numbers are named after the 13th-century Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci (c. 1175–c. 1250).
Counting squirrels and other wild animals
By definition, wild animals cannot be counted systematically and exhaustively: it is difficult to warn them that a census taker will be calling at their home next Monday! This is where statistics—and estimation theory in particular—comes to the rescue.
Counting to exist: the political uses of... | Tangente
Counting seems straightforward enough: you count what is there. Nothing could be more childlike... or so it seems. Yet counting entails highly significant political choices and can serve extremely important economic, social and even identity-related purposes.
Artists’ visions: knots in art and maths | Tangente
Three artists share their visions of knots.
Vaughan 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".
École polytechnique’s maths special | Tangente
La Jaune & La Rouge, the monthly magazine of the École polytechnique alumni and graduates association (AX), devotes its February 2023 feature section to mathematics.
Charles V's letter finally deciphered | Tangente
An encrypted letter from Charles V (1500–1558), Holy Roman Emperor, addressed in 1547 to Jean de Saint-Mauris, his ambassador to the king of France, and housed in the autograph collection of the Bibliothèque Stanislas in Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), has just been not merely read but deciphered. Long passages in the letter are encoded.
AI improves the general algorithm for matrix multiplication
Every science student knows how to multiply two matrices. So why call it an "open problem"?
Sédimath: an initiative for promoting mathematics | Tangente
A new mathematics outreach initiative has just been launched: Sédimath, an online seminar organized by Aurélien Alvarez (ÉNS-Lyon) and Élise Raphael (Université de Genève, Switzerland).
Ada Lovelace honored: pioneer of coding | Tangente
Every year, on the second Tuesday in October, an event celebrates women innovators in computing. In 2022, a postage stamp bearing Ada Lovelace's likeness was issued.
Grenoble math center: local authorities pull out | Tangente
La Grange des Maths is an association founded in 2015 to renovate an old barn in Varces (Isère) and turn it into a place where people can meet and share mathematics.
The famous number 1729: Hardy and Ramanujan | Tangente
The smallest integers that can be written as a sum of two cubes in three different ways, then four different ways, and so on, are often called taxicab numbers.
François Plantade: Abel, a mathematical genius | Tangente
For Tangente, François Plantade looks back at the life of Niels Henrik Abel, a 19th-century Norwegian mathematician who remains little known despite his major influence on the mathematics of his day. He died at 26, and his work only began to gain recognition toward the end of his life.
A brief history of Grandi's series
Grandi's series is the infinite sum 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 + … Mathematicians have studied it for more than three hundred years. Its history can be divided into three stages.
Year of Mathematics guide | Tangente
The Institut national des sciences mathématiques et de leurs interactions (INSMI) and the ministère de l'Éducation nationale joined forces to propose that 2020 be designated the Year of Mathematics.