It’s a complaint many algebra teachers are familiar with, as more letters and symbols are introduced with progressively harder courses in mathematics. But why did the plus symbol emerge as the ...

When Ed Scheinerman's 7-year-old granddaughter asked the question that every mathematician secretly loves—"What is the number before infinity?"—he knew he was onto something. "You're not going to like ...

I met a fellow math professor at a conference several weeks ago who is teaching a class on the idea of infinity. He told me of a story he tells his class about how difficult the idea of "infinity" can ...