All mainstream credit card numbers obey a mathematical trick designed to catch the most common typos. It’s called the Luhn algorithm, named after IBM researcher Hans Peter Luhn, who patented it in ...

Quantum computers can do wondrous things: too bad they do not exist yet. That has not stopped physicists from devising new algorithms for the devices, which can calculate a lot faster than ordinary ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Surprise: You can answer this question with modern algebra. Most folks who have been ...

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Cathy O’Neil believes there is a dark side to numbers. A mathematician by training, she earned her doctorate at Harvard and went on to become a tenure-track professor at Barnard College. In 2007, ...