News by Subject Mathematics

New research suggests that we tend to compose 'selfies' that horizontally center on one of our eyes, particularly the left. The study authors speculate that this alignment is because our eyes provide a wealth of information about our gaze direction and what we are paying attention to, which may in turn be used to share important information with the viewer about our mood and what we are thinking about.

Conventional wisdom in the startup community is that with the right incentives, the venture can meet and exceed expectations, and a major component of this is how you structure your contracts for founders and early employees. New research has found that when it comes to those contracts, it may be less about incentive, and more about identifying the right people to incentivize.

After years of work, University of Copenhagen mathematics researchers have answered a mysterious half-century-old riddle. The mystery was all but forgotten until a Danish researcher heard about, and then decided to tackle it.

Being good at math relates to better financial and medical outcomes -- unless you don't have confidence in your own abilities with numbers, new research suggests. In two studies, researchers found that the key to success in personal finances and dealing with a complex disease was a match between a person's math abilities and how comfortable and assured he or she felt using those skills.

Hot on the heels of the ground-breaking 'Sum-Of-Three-Cubes' solution for the number 33, a team led by the University of Bristol and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has solved the final piece of the famous 65-year-old maths puzzle with an answer for the most elusive number of all - 42.

Time is money. Especially for rideshare drivers with companies like Uber and Lyft. New research in the INFORMS journal Operations Research looks at a new model for rideshare companies focusing on maximizing the availability of rideshares by optimally routing empty cars.

Ordinary people see beauty in complex mathematical arguments in the same way they can appreciate a beautiful landscape painting or a piano sonata.