Fermat’s last theorem is just one of many examples of innocent-looking problems that can long stymie even the most astute mathematicians. It took about 350 years to prove Fermat’s scribbled conjecture ...

Consider a pencil lying on your desk. Try to spin it around so that it points once in every direction, but make sure it sweeps over as little of the desk’s surface as possible. You might twirl the ...

University of Florida provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US. What happens when someone claims to have proved a famous conjecture? Well, it depends. When a paper is submitted, ...