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Mathematics, from the Greek: μαθηματικά or mathēmatiká, is the study of numbers and their operations, interrelations, combinations, generalizations, and abstractions and of space configurations and their structure, measurement, transformations, and generalizations. It evolved through the use of abstraction and logical reasoning, from counting, calculation, measurement, and the systematic study of positions, shapes and motions of physical objects. Mathematicians explore such concepts, aiming to formulate new conjectures and establish their truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions.

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The homotopy groups of spheres describe the different ways spheres of various dimensions can be wrapped around each other. They are studied as part of algebraic topology. The topic can be hard to understand because the most interesting and surprising results involve spheres in higher dimensions. These are defined as follows: an n-dimensional sphere, n-sphere, consists of all the points in a space of n+1 dimensions that are a fixed distance from a center point. This definition is a generalization of the familiar circle (1-sphere) and sphere (2-sphere).

A homotopy from a circle around a sphere down to a single point.

The goal of algebraic topology is to categorize or classify topological spaces. Homotopy groups were invented in the late 19th century as a tool for such classification, in effect using the set of mappings from an n-sphere in to a space as a way to probe the structure of that space. An obvious question was how this new tool would work on n-spheres themselves. No general solution to this question has been found to date, but many homotopy groups of spheres have been computed and the results are surprisingly rich and complicated. The study of the homotopy groups of spheres has led to the development of many powerful tools used in algebraic topology.

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Image credit: Richard Morris

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Pascal's triangle is a geometric arrangement of the binomial coefficients in a triangle. It is named after Blaise Pascal in much of the western world, although other mathematicians studied it centuries before him in India, Persia, China, and Italy. The rows of Pascal's triangle are conventionally enumerated starting with row zero, and the numbers in odd rows are usually staggered relative to the numbers in even rows. A simple construction of the triangle proceeds in the following manner. On the zeroth row, write only the number 1. Then, to construct the elements of following rows, add the number directly above and to the left with the number directly above and to the right to find the new value. The above animation shows the procedure for doing this for the first 5 rows.

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Did you know...

...that the Gudermannian function relates the regular trigonometric functions and the hyperbolic trigonometric functions without the use of complex numbers?
...that the Catalan numbers solve a number of problems in combinatorics such as the number of ways to completely parenthesize an algebraic expression with n+1 factors?
...that a sphere can be cut up and reassembled into two spheres the same size as the original (Banach-Tarski paradox)?
...that it is impossible to devise a single formula involving only polynomials and radicals for solving an arbitrary quintic equation?
...that Euler found 59 more amicable numbers while for 2000 years, only 3 pairs had been found before him?
...that you cannot knot strings in 4-dimensions? You can, however, knot 2-dimensional surfaces like spheres.
...that there are 6 unsolved mathematics problems whose solutions will earn you one million US dollars each?
...that there are different sizes of infinite sets in set theory? More precisely, not all infinite cardinal numbers are equal?
...that every natural number can be written as the sum of four squares?

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