Math | featured news

Just as light does, ants traveling through different materials follow the fastest path, not the shortest one. A recent study found that when fire ants (Wasmannia auropunctata) crossed different surfaces, the insects chose the route that would minimize their total walking time, rather than the distance traveled.

Today is Pi Day, a day to celebrate the joys of the mathematical constant of 3.14159 or a slice of baked deliciousness. If the term "pi" doesn't ring any bells, let's review a little high school geometry. Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and is represented by the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet ("π") and is often written simply as "pi."

Using formulas he says are derived from "only math and 15 years of data, no personal hunches," a college student named Ben Zauzmer is taking a Nate Silver-like approach to predicting the Oscar winners -- and he says last year, his model proved 100 percent effective at determining who'd take home trophies in all eight of the major categories.

iPad apps that college students have developed soon could help high school and middle school students crack the code of algebra, often a gatekeeper to college entry.

Rushing able mathematicians through the curriculum means England is producing pupils with a "superficial" grasp of the subject, a report suggests.

Average scores on the ACT exam held steady for the high school class of 2012 but the results show modest progress in the number of students who appear ready for college-level work in math and science.

The Obama administration unveiled plans Wednesday to create an elite corps of master teachers, a $1 billion effort to boost U.S. students' achievement in science, technology, engineering and math. The program to reward high-performing teachers with salary stipends is part of a long-term effort by President Barack Obama to encourage education in high-demand areas that hold the key to future economic growth - and to close the achievement gap between American students and their international peers.

It has been known that pigeons can count, but a recent experiment showed they can perform a higher math task that had been demonstrated only in primates: ranking groups of items from fewest to most.

The nation's elementary-school children notched the highest scores ever recorded on national math exams this year, continuing a 20-year trend of improvement, according to test data released Tuesday.

March 14 is Pi Day (3.14, get it?), and to celebrate the magical and mesmerizing mathematical constant, I've collected a dozen very special pi tributes from around the Web (here's a brief history of pi, to boot).