Mathematical Themes
Explore the major mathematical themes: geometry, algebra, analysis, arithmetic, logic, and many other fascinating fields.
Mathematics at school | Tangente
Worrying results show that attainment among young French pupils continues to decline, and new baccalauréat examinations in the penultimate year of high school aim to rekindle high school students' enthusiasm for mathematics.
Peano by his great-niece | Tangente
Alongside official biographies, family accounts offer other glimpses into figures known mainly through their work. Lalla Romano, the celebrated Italian author, bears witness to her intellectual closeness with her great-uncle, Giuseppe Peano.
Quadrilaterals that don't come up short on area!
While the formula for the area of an arbitrary triangle has been known for a long time, that of an arbitrary quadrilateral took longer to emerge. Yet the two formulas share a kinship — visual, if nothing else — that is quite fascinating.
The challenges of tomorrow's agriculture
The AgroStat project studies the dynamic evolution of living organisms of interest to agronomy using an approach based on the overall study of agroecosystems. This leads to interdisciplinary work bringing together numerous scientists.
Bacteria carried by the crowd
Collective dynamics abound in the animal world, from flocks of birds to colonies of bacteria. The MAMUTCELL project aims to explore and mathematically model the movements of large bacterial assemblies in heterogeneous environments.
Calculated distances, lived distances
Did you know that in Manhattan, the ways of connecting two places a few hundred metres apart number in the millions? Whereas in Cabourg, there is generally only one shortest path connecting two points? These are the very properties of mathematical distance that can help geographers and urban planners better design the spaces we live in.
Financing the environmental transition | Tangente
The MIRTE project studies incentives and regulations in key sectors such as finance, energy and transport, with the aim of steering behavior toward a low-carbon economy.
Biology of aging and telomeres | Tangente
Can aging be modeled? That is the challenge taken up by DyLT (short for "Dynamics of Telomere Lengths"), a targeted project within the PEPR Maths-Vives program. It tackles a central question: how do telomeres—the caps at the ends of our chromosomes—shorten over time, and how can mathematics help model this complex process?
Mathematics in Interaction | Tangente
The Mathematics in Interaction program, launched in 2024, aims to foster interaction between mathematics and other disciplines around the themes of life sciences, the environment and society. Backed by funding of €50 million, it brings together nineteen scientific projects led by multidisciplinary teams.
Flexible in three dimensions | Tangente
The flexacube and a more sophisticated form, the Yoshimoto cube, are three-dimensional versions of flexagons. Beyond their construction, these astonishing objects raise questions about the flexibility of polyhedra and formalize that question: under what condition does a solid remain rigid?
Tetraflexagons: squarely strange | Tangente
Unlike hexaflexagons, known for their regularity, tetraflexagons, whose faces are squares, have always escaped systematic study. They exhibit several types of cycles, and the complexity of handling them contrasts sharply with the apparent simplicity of their shape.
In the land of hexaflexagons | Tangente
The first hexagonal-faced flexagon studied had three stable positions. Methods were quickly found for constructing an associated hexaflexagon for a given number of stable positions — and even several different hexaflexagons…
An animal with a knack for flexing | Tangente
Les flexagones du Kangourou is a leaflet printed on thick paper, featuring a mathematical structure to cut out.
The trick wallet and flexing | Tangente
Although hexaflexagons were identified by Stone, the shape of the first tetraflexagon had been known for a very long time. This is a double-acting hinge.
A short history of flexagons | Tangente
Popularized by Martin Gardner, flexagons are geometric curiosities that sparked huge enthusiasm among the general public. Although their mathematical study began in the 1940s, they have not yet given up all their secrets.
Logistic functions, from demographics to marketing
Driven by the desire for reliable demographic models, logistic functions emerged around 1840. They provide the best model for growth limited by external factors, extending Malthus's approach. Today they have unexpected applications, whether in marketing or household equipment.
Hilbert spaces, a framework for quantum mechanics
The mathematical modeling of quantum physics rests on probability theory, but also on Hilbert spaces and linear maps (generally not continuous) on these spaces. The power of this mathematical structure has made it possible, for example, to calculate the energy levels of the hydrogen electron.
Tangente middle school prize | Tangente
Given the annual success of the Tangente High School Prize, the Littéramath association (litteramath.fr), in partnership with the APMEP and Tangente magazine, has decided to launch the Tangente Middle School Prize, which aims to promote mathematical culture through storytelling.
2025 Tangente High School Students' Prize | Tangente
The Tangente High School Students' Prize is now in its tenth year. Throughout the school year, students from tenth grade through their final year of high school scrutinized every book on the shortlist before choosing the winners.
2025 Tangente Prize | Tangente
Every year since it was created in 2009, the Tangente Prize has honored a book "that has inspired a wide readership to learn more about one or more areas of mathematics." The jury had to choose among six shortlisted books.