5-Minute Mathematics

Dive into the extraordinary life of Évariste Galois—a mathematical genius who revolutionized algebra before his untimely death at 20. 📚✨

Évariste Galois: A Brilliant Flame Extinguished Too Soon Évariste Galois was born on October 25, 1811, in the small village of Bourg-la-Reine, just south of Paris, France. His father…

Did you know there is a sequence of numbers that appears everywhere in nature? It’s called the Fibonacci sequence, and it’s made by adding the previous two terms to get the next term: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13,… 

The Fibonacci sequence can be found in many natural phenomena, such as the arrangement of petals on a flower, the spiral of a snail shell, the branching of a tree, and the growth of a pineapple. 

The Fibonacci sequence also has a close connection to the golden ratio, which is another mathematical constant that appears in art and architecture.

Did you know there is a shape that has only one side and one edge? It’s called a Möbius strip, and it’s made by taking a rectangular strip of paper, giving it a half-twist, and joining the ends together.

If you trace your finger along the surface of a Möbius strip, you will go around both sides without crossing an edge. A Möbius strip can also be cut in half along its center line, and instead of getting two separate pieces, you will get one longer Möbius strip.

Born 28 January 1540
Hildesheim, Germany
Died 31 December 1610
Leiden, Netherlands
Ludolph van Ceulen, who computed the value of pi to 35 decimal places, born in Hildesheim, Germany. Pi is still sometimes referred to as Ludolph's number.