Square roots
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At the root of the square root
Essential in geometry as in analysis, square roots nevertheless took many centuries to establish themselves as full-fledged numbers in mathematics. The difficulty in evaluating them did not help their acceptance! In fact, one often has to calculate approximate values. For this, what better than a good algorithm? You undoubtedly know Heron's method or the digit-by-digit extraction method, but this feature will finally help you understand "why and how it works".
A sharp topic: the rhombus
Forgotten quadrilateral, little-known parallelogram, the rhombus is a figure almost ignored by geometry: its mathematical properties seem rather meager. Yet it retains a share of mystery, which this feature will help you unravel. First of all, the origin of the word "rhombus" remains enigmatic. Then, one may wonder whether every rhombus has an incircle, or is circumscribed by a circle (think about it for a moment, these are not such obvious questions!). Or whether one can construct polyhedra whose faces are rhombuses. Finally, just as there are "magic squares", there has recently existed a "magic rhombus"!
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Tangente Day 2023 at the Musée des Arts & Métiers
Come celebrate the Trophées Tangente day, the world's only magazine of mathematical culture sold at newsstands! There will be something for every taste, every age and every level. Here is a preview of what this full day has in store.
Portrait of Luca Pacioli:
Until January 8, 2024, the Louvre Museum is hosting an exhibition that should interest all our readers: "Naples in Paris: The Louvre Hosts the Museo di Capodimonte."
Tête-à-tête chercheuse(s),
Nathalie Ayi, a researcher and associate professor at Sorbonne Université, also created and hosts the podcast Tête-à-tête chercheuse(s).
A well-deserved medal
The MATh.en.JEANS association has won the CNRS science outreach medal
Marguerite's Theorem:
Anna Novion's film Marguerite's Theorem had already won numerous prizes and awards before it even reached cinemas. Anna Novion, the director, and Ariane Mézard, the mathematician who advised her, agreed to answer Tangente's questions.
Dust in the corners
The beauty of fractal curves fascinates amateurs and seasoned mathematicians alike. The latter, however, know that these objects also give rise to subtle problems in measure theory. Here we illustrate an apparently paradoxical situation and a delicate theorem.
The hidden riches of the multiplication table
Think you know your multiplication tables? Think again! A surprising property emerges when a regular polygon is drawn on the multiplication table: the mean of the values at its vertices is the value at the polygon's center!
Reading ancient and medieval mathematicians
In 2018, the British publisher Routledge launched a series entitled "Scientific Writings from the Ancient and Medieval World" with a Babylonian astronomical handbook.
La Maison des mathématiques de l’Ouest
Activities that bring artists and mathematicians together to share mathematics with the public are flourishing across Pays de la Loire and Brittany. A Maison des mathématiques de l’Ouest was established to bring them together.
