Imagine winding the hour hand of a clock back from 3 o’clock to noon. Mathematicians have long known how to describe this rotation as a simple multiplication: A number representing the initial ...

For most people, the word "algebra" conjures classroom memories of Xs and Ys. Weekend Edition's math guy, Keith Devlin, says that's because most schools do a terrible job of teaching it. He talks with ...

Several fields of mathematics have developed in total isolation, using their own 'undecipherable' coded languages. Mathematicians now present 'big algebras,' a two-way mathematical 'dictionary' ...

Seven years ago, I made a snap decision to walk away from traditional grading, and I never looked back. I was fed up with the way traditional grades lie to us and to students about learning, as well ...

Courtney Gibbons is affiliated with the Association for Women in Mathematics and the American Mathematical Society. You might remember learning about the quadratic formula to figure out the solutions ...

Thanks to the information revolution, a stunning 90% of the data created by humanity has been generated in just the past two years. Yet the math taught in U.S. schools hasn’t materially changed since ...

Representation theory transforms abstract algebra groups into things like simpler matrices. The field’s founder left a list of 43 problems for others to study, iterate on, and prove. One mathematician ...

She transcended the boundaries of traditional thinking in mathematics and changed the face of abstract algebra forever: the mathematician Emmy Noether (1882-1935) is considered one of the most ...

Algebra is one of the biggest hurdles to getting a high school or college degree — particularly for students of color and first-generation undergrads. It is also the single most failed course in ...