One of the oldest fragments of Euclid's Elements that has been...
One of the oldest fragments of Euclid's Elements that has been found, dating from 100 AD (about 400 years after it was written).
Évariste Galois was born in Paris in 1811. He was arrested for...
Évariste Galois was born in Paris in 1811. He was arrested for his democratic activism, invented a major new branch of mathematics, and died in a duel at the age of twenty.
With a few mirrors, you can make a pattern go on forever.
With a few mirrors, you can make a pattern go on forever.
This marble floor mosaic is in Venice cathedral. It shows a...
This marble floor mosaic is in Venice cathedral. It shows a shape called a stellated dodecahedron.
Seen here are instructions written by Thomas Jefferson for...
Seen here are instructions written by Thomas Jefferson for drawing part of an octagon. Jefferson’s house at Monticello, Virginia, which he designed, includes prominent octagonal structures.
For any three circles (drawn in black), there are exactly eight...
For any three circles (drawn in black), there are exactly eight different circles that just touch all three of them.
There are thirteen special shapes with completely symmetrical...
There are thirteen special shapes with completely symmetrical flat sides that look the same at every meeting point. They were discovered by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes.
This beautiful tiling is from the palace of the Alhambra in...
This beautiful tiling is from the palace of the Alhambra in Spain.
This is a woodcut called Circle Limit III by the Dutch artist...
This is a woodcut called Circle Limit III by the Dutch artist M.C. Escher, of which he said that “fish shoot up like rockets from infinitely far away … and fall back again whence they came”.
A model of a surface called a hyperbolic plane made by...
A model of a surface called a hyperbolic plane made by crocheting. Hyperbolic planes are surfaces that are curved like leaves of holly at every point.