The share bike mystery
How is it possible that bikes are so perfectly spread out that they are available from almost anywhere? Who are these bike fairies that distribute them evenly across the city? Continue reading if you like to find out who they are and what type of mathematics is involved.
A balanced schedule for the Premier League of Darts exists… and is not used…
The Premier League of Darts is an annual competition where the best darts players of the world compete over several months for the title, and the prize of £275.000. However… the schedule chosen by the PDC is unbalanced: some matches between pairs of specific players will occur relatively often, while others will occur very rarely.
Guarding against uncertainty: How Kidney Exchanges can handle unexpected cancellations
Around the world, tens of thousands of people are waiting to receive a kidney transplant. Read how mathematics can help more people receive one.
Netsweeper: playing Minesweeper without the old-fashioned grid
If you were born in the previous century, then chances are high that you have spent quite some hours playing Minesweeper, the classic puzzle game that used to be installed on every computer. In this article, we will present a new network-based version of this game and show how network science can help you play this game.
Reading in the Christmas holiday
Welcome to the annual Christmas overview of our latest articles!
Ramanujan
If there is such a thing as mathematical talent, then it clearly has to be found everywhere. At a first glance, this could seem a pretty obvious statement but things get a bit more complicated if you try to better define talent and, unfortunately, also everywhere.
Interview with Marjan Sjerps: Mathematicians have a way of thinking that I really like
The Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) has a great deal of in-house knowledge in the field of forensic products, research and services, and provides many organizations in the field of security and law with reliable information from traces. Mathematical models are used within the NFI to understand the evidential value of the traces found.
Science in the city
In the city of Utrecht there are four wall paintings of Dutch physisists. Do you know which ones? In this short blog post we want to take you on a virtual bike ride in the city of Utrecht.
Light work(s): Optical Networks – communication fabric of our society
On Friday 24th of September Professor Ton Koonen received a royal distinction “Ridder in the Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw” during the symposium “Optical Networks – communication fabric of our society”, preceding his valedictory lecture “Light work(s)”.
Percolation theory: about math and gossip
Percolation theory is a branch of mathematics at the interface between probability theory and graph theory. The term 'percolation' originates from materials science. A representative question is as follows. Suppose some liquid is poured over a porous material. Will the liquid be able to make its way from hole to hole and reach the bottom?