It’s a complaint many algebra teachers are familiar with, as more letters and symbols are introduced with progressively harder courses in mathematics. But why did the plus symbol emerge as the ...

A set of the six sides of a die matches up one-to-one with a set of red shoes, helping illustrate Georg Cantor's set theorem. Image courtesy of GBH/NOVA It can be easy to take math for granted. But ...

There is no shortage of popular books and lectures on math—but they can only teach us so much. Mathematics has long been presented as a sanctuary from confusion and doubt, a place to go in search of ...