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A minimal embedded surface discovered in 1992 consisting of a helicoid with a hole and handle (Science News 1992). It has the same topology as a punctured sphere with a ...

A (presumably autobiographical) character in one of astrophysicist Fred Hoyle's novels opined the following. "I figure that if to be totally known and totally loved is worth ...

The hyperfactorial (Sloane and Plouffe 1995) is the function defined by H(n) = K(n+1) (1) = product_(k=1)^(n)k^k, (2) where K(n) is the K-function. The hyperfactorial is ...

Hyperreal numbers are an extension of the real numbers to include certain classes of infinite and infinitesimal numbers. A hyperreal number x is said to be finite iff |x|<n ...

A particular solution to a differential equation corresponding to a specific value of the equation's free parameters. For example, the integral curves of the differential ...

Find a closed plane curve of a given perimeter which encloses the greatest area. The solution is a circle. If the class of curves to be considered is limited to smooth ...

Find the surface enclosing the maximum volume per unit surface area, I=V/S. The solution is a sphere, which has I_(sphere)=(4/3pir^3)/(4pir^2)=1/3r. The fact that a sphere ...

Let S be a mathematical statement, then the Iverson bracket is defined by [S]={0 if S is false; 1 if S is true, (1) and corresponds to the so-called characteristic function. ...

A semiprime which English economist and logician William Stanley Jevons incorrectly believed no one else would be able to factor. According to Jevons (1874, p. 123), "Can the ...

The jinc function is defined as jinc(x)=(J_1(x))/x, (1) where J_1(x) is a Bessel function of the first kind, and satisfies lim_(x->0)jinc(x)=1/2. The derivative of the jinc ...