All Stories by Ivars Peterson
- Math
Whirling to a chaotic finale
A black hole paired with another body can succumb to chaos when they orbit each other, making it more difficult to detect gravitational waves produced by such objects.
- Math
Traffic woes of the single driver
At moderate traffic volumes, a single car moving at randomly fluctuating speeds can cause traffic jams in its wake.
- Math
Spinning to a rolling stop
Air viscosity makes the rolling speed of a spinning, tipping coin go up as its energy goes down until the coin suddenly stops.
- Math
Prime Pursuit
A novel approach for identifying prime numbers provides a long-sought improvement in the theoretical efficiency of prime-detecting algorithms.
- Math
Changes of Mathematical State
Untangling a web of conflicting demands can be tough on computers.
- Math
A Fibonacci Fountain
The year 1202 saw the publication of one of the most famous and influential books in mathematics. Widely copied and imitated, Liber abaci introduced the use of Arabic numerals and the Hindu-Arabic place-valued decimal system into Europe. It was written by Leonardo Pisano, who became better known by his nickname Fibonacci. Helaman Ferguson’s Fibonacci Fountain. […]
- Math
A Fibonacci Fountain
The year 1202 saw the publication of one of the most famous and influential books in mathematics. Widely copied and imitated, Liber abaci introduced the use of Arabic numerals and the Hindu-Arabic place-valued decimal system into Europe. It was written by Leonardo Pisano, who became better known by his nickname Fibonacci. Helaman Ferguson’s Fibonacci Fountain. […]
- Math
Completing Latin Squares
Using only the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, arrange four sets of these numbers into a four-by-four array so that no column or row contains the same two numbers. The result is known as a Latin square. Here are two examples of Latin squares of order 4: 1 2 3 4 2 1 4 […]
- Physics
Ring around the proton
An orbiting electron accelerated to relativistic velocities by a laser in a strong magnetic field can behave like a ring-shaped electron cloud spinning around the nucleus.
- Physics
Writing with warm atoms
Researchers demonstrated that they can use a scanning tunneling microscope to position atoms in microscopic patterns at room temperature.
- Math
Catching Flies
Archerfish and baseball outfielders appear to use different strategies to snag a projectile. Archerfish (Toxotes jaculatrix) are famous for their unusual way of hunting insect prey. Upon spying an insect on a twig or a piece of foliage hanging above the water surface, the fish shoots it down using a strong, accurately aimed jet of […]
- Humans
Nobel prizes honor innovative approaches
The 2002 Nobel prizes pay tribute to an international sampling of scientists who developed powerful new techniques for expanding the horizons of research.
