The ancient Greeks wanted to believe that the universe could be described in its entirety using only whole numbers and the ratios between them — fractions, or what we now call rational numbers. But ...

For centuries, one of algebra’s oldest puzzles has remained unsolved—how to find exact answers for higher-degree polynomials, where the variable is raised to the fifth power or more. Mathematicians ...

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What is the most bizarre real number that you can imagine? Probably many people think of an irrational number such as pi (π) or Euler’s number. And indeed, such values can be considered “wild.” After ...

The square root of a number N is a number which, when squared (multiplied by itself), results in N. How did the ancient Greeks find square roots? Their method is nowadays called a ‘Greek ladder’, ...