In “The Great Math War,” Jason Socrates Bardi takes on a battle for the soul of numbers that divided the experts of its day.

One in a series of occasional articles highlighting the philosophies and techniques of innovative teachers. Vern Williams was always one step ahead as a student at Paul Junior High School in the ...

In 1637, Pierre de Fermat scribbled a note on a textbook margin that would baffle mathematicians for more than three centuries. And that’s all he wrote. Fermat died before supplying the missing proof ...

There is no shortage of popular books and lectures on math—but they can only teach us so much. Mathematics has long been presented as a sanctuary from confusion and doubt, a place to go in search of ...

If we could snap our fingers and change the way math and science are taught in US schools, most of us would. The shortcomings of the current approach are clear. Subjects that are vibrant in the minds ...

Every mathematician has a story that goes something like this. You’re at a party, and someone asks what you do for a living. “I’m a mathematician,” you say. “You must be a genius!” they reply. Or ...

Before Abraham Lincoln was president, he spent many years as a prairie lawyer out in the frontier state of Illinois, where he decided to study a very old math book to help him think through his legal ...

Math is at play in every sphere of our lives, from recipes to internet security to the electoral college. But that reality can be hard to convey through the drills, static numbers and strict rules ...