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Continuously improving precision in length measurements increases understanding of our world and its phenomena, both at small and large scales, as Leo Gross reveals.
From determining the compound interest on borrowed money to gauging chances at the roulette wheel in Monte Carlo, Stefanie Reichert explains that there’s no way around Euler’s number.
Superconducting quantum interference devices can accurately measure temperatures even below 1 mK, but there’s more to them — as Thomas Schurig explains.
Imaginary numbers have a chequered history, and a sparse — if devoted — following. Abigail Klopper looks at why a concept as beautiful as i gets such a bad rap.
The way that we understand free space has varied wildly since our first conception of the vacuum. And how we measure the void has proven just as changeable, as Karl Jousten explains.
Bill Phillips celebrates a beautiful reformation of the metric system, by which scientists measure the physical world, coming into effect on World Metrology Day, 20 May 2019.
If you were ever puzzled about the fact that the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider record huge datasets despite the tiny probability of two protons colliding, this is for you. Steven Goldfarb and Katarina Anthony connect the dots.
In 2016, Peter Trueb computed 22.4 trillion digits of π. Ahead of π Day on 14 March, he reflects on the nature of π and its role in mathematics, science and philosophy.
Artificial intelligence is set to rival the human mind, just as the engine did the horse. José Hernández-Orallo looks at how we compare cognitive performance.
