Fermat numbers have what mathematicians sometimes describe as a “beautiful mathematical form,” involving powers of 2. They were of interest 400 years ago and are now the subject of a wide-ranging ...

For anyone fascinated by powers and integers, there’s no shortage of problems to tackle, whether by ingenious logic or massive computer search. In 1769, while thinking about the problem now known as ...

For almost 200 years, Euler’s conjecture reigned in mathematics unchecked. Then, a paper came out that turned the whole thing on its head… and it did it all in just two sentences. In 1769, ...