2701
Using neural networks to solve advanced mathematics equations
Facebook AI has developed the first neural network that uses symbolic reasoning to solve advanced mathematics problems.
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 2,851 posts.
2702
Finding Unity in the Math Wars
I usually avoid current events, but recent skirmishes in the math world prompted me to chime in. To recap, there've been heated discussions about math…
2703
2704
How thick is the atmosphere? A derivation of the Boltzmann distribution
Let’s talk about a small question as a way of introducing a big question. How thick is the atmosphere? How far does Earth’s atmosphere extend into space? In other words, how high can y…
2705
A group of Finnish math teachers write an open textbook in a weekend hackathon
A group of Finnish mathematics researchers, teachers and students write an upper secondary mathematics textbook in a booksprint. The event s...
2706
2707
Maze Generation: Wilson's algorithm
Algorithms, circle mazes, hex grids, masking, weaving, braiding, 3D and 4D grids, spheres, and more!
2708
My 2019 Mathematics a to Z: Linear Programming
Today’s A To Z term is another proposed by @aajohannas. I couldn’t find a place to fit this in the essay proper. But it’s too good to leave out. The simplex method, discussed with…
2709
2710
Floor, Ceiling, Bracket
The notation [x] reigned for nearly two centuries before being replaced by ⌊x⌋. Why the latter is much better and what else we might learn from its inventor.
2711
Reflections on Sudoku, or the Impossibility of Systematizing Thought
I reflect on the Entscheidungsproblem how it relates to Sudoku solvers. It's a little weird. .
2712
The Firing Squad Problem
In 1957, John Myhill first posed an interesting problem that was closely related to computer programming, but did not require any related background to solve. Dubbed the "firing squad synchronization problem," the puzzle was passed along by word of mouth and first solved by Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy. However…
2713
Supertasks
Background Reading: Earman and Norton, Infinite Pains: The Trouble with Supertasks and Comments on Laraudogoita's Supertask
2714
The birthday paradox in action: calculating the probability of a hash collision
You may feel like you've seen this before. If you have, skip to the end where I talk about a formula, and discuss the relevance to parameters in computer hashing algorithms. In particular, I'm going to talk about how large hash spaces should be to avoid collisions with a given level of probability. If there are just…
2715
An Intuitive Explanation of Bayes' Theorem
Bayes’ Theorem for the curious and bewildered; an excruciatingly gentle introduction.
2716
Sinusoidal Sunlight
The graph of daylight over the course of a year looks like a sine wave, but is it?
2717
Formally Modeling Dreidel, the Sequel
2 model 2 dreidel
2718
Two-part Rubik's algorithms
When Rubik’s Cube first appeared decades ago, I jumped on it. I bought one, and spent an entire summer fiddling with it. Over that summer, I developed a solving technique that has stuck with me. My technique is not the fastest; that was never the goal. My algorithms make sense to me because they are constructed, and…
2719
Jacobian Conjecture for Baby
An illustrated guide that starts from the basics, explains the Jacobian Conjecture, and follows what happened to it in July 2026.
2720
Calculating the intersection area of 3 or more circles
While attempting to learn Javascript and D3.js a couple months ago, I wrote a little library for displaying area proportional venn diagrams .
2721
Side-stepping the Secretary Problem, unwittingly
Having played both parts in the kabuki play that is employee-employer matchmaking, I feel the way we play it is a zero-sum game. I wish it were not so. When this post started life in 2024, as a wall of text chat message, it was brutal out there, on both sides of the software industry interview table. The ZIRP had…
2722
Analytic Fog Rendering with Volumetric Primitives (2025)
In this post I’m going to cover a neat technique for rendering regions of fog with varying density. I’ll start by covering some of the basic principles behind fog rendering and a few co…
2723
2724
Implementing Levenshtein Automata
Thanks to Ken Hironaka for kindly taking a lot of time to read and fix countless errors in this blog post!
2725
Flattening Quadratic Béziers
Blog of Raph Levien.
2726
2727
Papers I like (part 2)
Continued from part 1. Once I was about a thousand words into describing background for GEMM, it became pretty clear that it made more sense to group the numerical math papers into one post, so her…
2728
Mathematically correct but psychologically wrong
The snowball strategy says to pay off your smallest debt first, then the next smallest, and so on until you're out of debt. When I first heard of this I thought it was silly. Clearly the optimal strategy is to pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first. That assessment is mathematically correct,
2729
Divisibility by 7
How can you tell whether a number is divisible by 7? Almost everyone knows how to easily tell whether a number is divisible by 2, 3, 5, or 9. A few less know tricks for testing divisibility by 4, 6, 8, or 11. But not many people have ever seen a trick for testing divisibility
2730
P vs. NP for Dummies
A reader named Darren commented on my last post: I have this feeling that this whole P and NP thing is not only a profound problem that needs solving, but something that can be infinitely curious t…