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 ...

When it comes to teaching math, a debate has persisted for decades: How, and to what degree, should algorithms be a focus of learning math? The step-by-step procedures are among the most debated ...

You’re at the checkout screen after an online shopping spree, ready to enter your credit card number. You type it in and instantly see a red error message ...

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, ...

Mathematics often seems like an abstract concept, but its applications can have profound impacts on the world around us. From predicting the next word in a sentence to understanding how Google’s ...

In a world run by computers, there is one algorithm that stands above all the rest. It powers search engines, encrypts your data, guides rockets, runs simulations, and makes the modern digital ...