The witch of Agnesi, you may be disappointed to know, is a curve that math students generally learn about in calculus class. It doesn’t look much like a witch, or a hat or even a broomstick. It’s ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Calculus is a powerful mathematical tool. But for hundreds of years after its invention in the 17th century, it stood on a shaky ...

Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe Steven Strogatz Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2019) Midway through Infinite Powers, Steven Strogatz writes that Isaac Newton and ...

In the late 19th century, Karl Weierstrass invented a fractal-like function that was decried as nothing less than a “deplorable evil.” In time, it would transform the foundations of mathematics.

After writing a groundbreaking math textbook, Maria Agnesi quit math for good Evelyn Lamb The witch of Agnesi, you may be disappointed to know, is a curve that math students generally learn about in ...