Humble Pi: When Math Goes Awry

After the success of Artemis II, we at Short Wave definitely have moon fever. So, we brought NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce onto the show to talk about where we’re headed. What will future Artemis missions look like and what needs to happen next for people to be a ...  Show more

To solar or not to solar? That is the question for this latest episode of our monthly series Nature Quest. For listener Darcey Hughes, installing solar panels isn’t just about keeping her utilities free of fossil fuels – it’s also a way to become fully self-reliant and save some ...  Show more

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Sara Pascoe and the very numerate Prof Hannah Fry, maths comedian Matt Parker and statistician Prof David Spiegelhalter for a unique maths class. Are some of us just innately bad at maths or can everyone get to grips with algebra an ...  Show more

Calculator tricks and baking cakes - how two female mathematicians help people have fun with maths. Eugenia Cheng's aim is to rid the world of 'math phobia' and she uses baking to explain complex mathematical ideas to the general public, via her books and YouTube channel. For ins ...  Show more

Mathematics as a subject is distinctive in its symbolic abstraction and its potential for logical and computational rigor. But mathematicians tend to impute other qualities to our subject that set it apart, such as impartiality, universality, and elegance. Far from incidental, th ...  Show more

Pi is the ratio between a circle’s diameter and its circumference. Sounds dull – but pi turns out to have astonishing properties and crop up in places you would never expect. For a start, it goes on forever and never repeats, meaning it probably contains your name, date of birth, ...  Show more