This is a classic introductory physics problem. Basically, you have a cart on a frictionless track (call this m 1) with a string that runs over a pulley to another mass hanging below (call this m 2).

Even on my laptop’s tinny speakers, the sound is unmis­takable: the click-clacking, slip-sliding sound of a Rubik’s Cube whipping into shape. “It’s my first solve of the day,” says Australian ...

Mathematicians are “reinventing the wheel” by giving it a new shape. Their newly imagined wheel looks like a many-dimensional guitar pick, and it could theoretically roll in ways beyond our ...

If you're thinking about solving some of the world's most pressing problems, from providing clean water to developing nations to eradicating infectious diseases worldwide, then it's not a bad idea to ...

Mathematicians predicted that if they imposed enough restrictions on how a shape might tile space, they could force a periodic pattern to emerge. But they were wrong. One of the oldest and simplest ...