As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kittens. Kittens, cats, sacks and wives, how many were going to St. . . .
Find out about Magic Squares in this article written for students. Why are they magic?!
Can you make a hypothesis to explain these ancient numbers?
This article gives a brief history of the development of Geometry.
This article -useful for teachers and learners - gives a short account of the history of negative numbers.
The Four Colour Conjecture was first stated just over 150 years ago, and finally proved conclusively in 1976. It is an outstanding example of how old ideas can be combined with new discoveries. prove. . . .
This is the first of a two part series of articles on the history of Algebra from about 2000 BCE to about 1000 CE.
This is the second article in a two part series on the history of Algebra from about 2000 BCE to about 1000 CE.
In the time before the mathematical idea of randomness was discovered, people thought that everything that happened was part of the will of supernatural beings. So have things changed?
Can you decode the mysterious markings on this ancient bone tool?
This short article gives an outline of the origins of Morse code and its inventor and how the frequency of letters is reflected in the code they were given.
When you think of spies and secret agents, you probably wouldn’t think of mathematics. Some of the most famous code breakers in history have been mathematicians.
This article for pupils gives some examples of how circles have featured in people's lives for centuries.
The first of three articles on the History of Trigonometry. This takes us from the Egyptians to early work on trigonometry in China.
The second of three articles on the History of Trigonometry.
The third of three articles on the History of Trigonometry.
Some explanations of basic terms and some phenomena discovered by ancient astronomers
This article explores ths history of theories about the shape of our planet. It is the first in a series of articles looking at the significance of geometric shapes in the history of astronomy.
The second in a series of articles on visualising and modelling shapes in the history of astronomy.
What was it like to learn maths at school in the Victorian period? We visited the British Schools Museum in Hitchin to find out.
Noticing the regular movement of the Sun and the stars has led to a desire to measure time. This article for teachers and learners looks at the history of man's need to measure things.