We Use Math Blog

Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the largest cave in the world, with more than 390 miles of passageway and new discoveries adding several miles to this total each year.

Spelunkers compete to explore it, early 1900s farmers competed to sell it, and now the best minds in math and physics compete to explain it.  For centuries, researchers have understood the basics: caves form when water trickles through tiny rock fractures. But the question has still remained: how does a small flow of water erode rock fast enough to make 300-mile tunnels? Now, an answer emerges from a series of math equations. This discovery has applications in everything from the safety of dams to the fate of nuclear waste. Read the full article here.

Some clever math may have solved one of space’s greatest mysteries: the amount of dark matter in the universe.

But this discovery may have raised more questions than it answered. Check it out.

Using some clever math, researchers have figured out how to “see” through opaque materials.

Learn more about the matrix that could make it possible to see through walls.

A new kind of computer can crunch through our frequently used data encryption algorithms, creating a data security crisis.  

But it turns out that an obscure thirty-year-old code is resistant to all known decryption methods.  See what makes this formula different.

Smoked salmon is a gourmet favorite, but unfortunately it’s also a big hit with microbial bacteria.

Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been busy cooking up a mathematical model to make sure that when people eat salmon, that’s all they’re eating.  Click here to learn more about how math can find the perfect temperature and amounts of smoke and salt to eliminate food poisoning.