ChatGPT's breakthrough is not what it seems.

The result is correct but challenges core norms of mathematics: checking proofs, crediting ideas and keeping research open to everyone.

In mid-May, OpenAI announced that an internal AI model had disproved the Erdős unit distance conjecture, a famous problem in discrete geometry that had stumped human mathematicians for the last 80 ...

“If you are a mathematician,” one of the world’s leading mathematicians recently wrote, “you may want to make sure you are sitting down before reading further.” And you’ll definitely need to sit down ...

In October 2024 I attended a workshop at Harvard University where mathematicians talked through the uses of artificial intelligence in their field. Most were less worried about the future of math than ...

Chemistry, mathematics and physics are central to our understanding of nature. Physics explores the fundamental laws of mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and relativity. Chemistry studies ...

Five years ago, mathematicians Dawei Chen and Quentin Gendron were trying to untangle a difficult area of algebraic geometry involving differentials, elements of calculus used to measure distance ...

In the third century BCE, Apollonius of Perga asked how many circles one could draw that would touch three given circles at exactly one point each. It would take 1,800 years to prove the answer: eight ...

Math doesn’t have to be daunting, especially when your iPhone (or iPad) can do the heavy lifting. Tucked away inside iOS is a full-featured scientific calculator, ready to help you solve complex ...

Mathematicians sometimes think of their research as a garden and unsolved problems as seeds waiting to sprout. Some problems are analogous to tulip bulbs. As mathematicians work to solve them, they ...

Cross-check answers using reverse calculations. Use approximation to quickly estimate answers in MCQs. Memorise square roots, cube roots, and multiplication tables for quicker calculations. Example: ...