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Ask Dr. Universe Mathematics
University Communications Network > Ask Dr. Universe > Academic Subjects > Mathematics

What’s the hardest math equation in the world? – James, 6, Washington state

Dear James,

There weren’t calculators or computers in medieval Europe. But there were math duels.

Mathematicians would gather in public squares and pose tricky math problems to each other. Then they raced to solve them. Victors might win money, fame or a university job. (Sadly, this isn’t how I got my job.)

People still noodle on difficult math puzzles for work and fun today.

That’s what my friend Daryl DeFord told me. He’s a mathematician at Washington State University.

“That’s really what math is all about,” he said. “You find something that doesn’t quite make sense, and you keep poking at it until it … » More …

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What is pi? – Johsan, 10, Alabama

Dear Johsan,

One of my favorite holidays is Pi Day. On March 14, people who love the math constant called pi celebrate by eating the other kind of pie. Like apple pie, pumpkin pie and even pizza pie.

I talked about the number pi with my friend Kristin Lesseig. She studies how kids learn math.

She told me pi is the ratio between the distance around a circle and the distance across a circle. A ratio is the relationship between two numbers. We usually think of pi as about 3.14—but there’s more to it than that.

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Dr. Universe: How many peas would fit in the sun? -Keegan, 8

Our sun is so massive, you could fit more than one million earths inside of it. To find out how many peas would fit inside the biggest object in our solar system, I decided to ask my friend and mathematician Kimberly Vincent at Washington State University. Vincent and her students said that to figure out how much of something can fit inside the sun, we need to know the volume of the sun. The volume is how much space something takes up. Read More ...

Why is Pi 3.1415...? What if it was just 3? -anonymous

Dear Curious Readers,

It’s almost March 14. You know what that means: Pi Day, as in 3/14, or 3.14159265359 and so on.

I met up with my friend Nathan Hamlin, a mathematician and instructor here at Washington State University, to explore your question about this never-ending number.

We calculated Pi with some of my favorite items: yarn and a tuna can. You can try it at home, too.

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