TOK: Mathematics
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Capitalism failing, warns investment kingpin
Is capitalism broken? Today, as experts digest the warnings of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, many are wondering if the system that dominates the globe is working for everyone.
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Five big ideas that WON'T be in the budget
Should Rishi Sunak be more radical? Today's UK budget is one of the most important of the past 100 years. Many believe it is a chance to reset society for generations to come.
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Discovered! Secret formula behind every genius
Are there rules to becoming a genius? A Harvard academic believes that he has established the key ingredients – but warns that those with great minds are not always great human beings.
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One mistake and bitcoin millions gone forever
Has the digital revolution gone too far? A forgotten password. A discarded hard drive. And two men desperate to recover huge fortunes. Is this a terrible morality tale for a virtual age?
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Lockdown could be destroying your memory
Is memory a muscle? Lockdown could be causing forgetfulness, but humans have developed a number of ingenious methods to counter it, from memory palaces to mystical theatres to “chunking”.
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Female prodigies fuel the great chess boom
Is this the next big thing in sport? The Queen’s Gambit is adding glamour to a skill with a geeky reputation – and young women are flocking to a game that once was the preserve of men.
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Zero: the idea that changed the world
Has the number “zero” done more to advance humanity than any other idea? Many mathematicians think so – for, without zero, we could not ponder either the concepts of the void or the infinite.
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£8 million: the price of a human life today
Can we measure the value of a life in money? It sounds unthinkable and heartless. But our world is shaped by mathematical models that calculate how much it is worth keeping each of us alive.
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How to tell a black swan from a red herring
Is Nassim Nicholas Taleb a modern-day prophet? The Lebanese-American statistician, author, and philosopher predicted the 2008 financial crash – and the current coronavirus pandemic.
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Coronavirus: the maths behind the panic
How worried should we be? The headlines shout: “killer virus”, “crisis”, and “confusion”. Italy accuses misleading media of creating an “infodemic”. But what do the numbers say?
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Maths: the secret to the game of life
Are there any problems maths can’t solve? It is the secret of success in chess and fantasy football; it is why computers are making more of our decisions. But is life only a numbers game?
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Everything we know about maths could be wrong
Is maths best described as an art or a science? A top academic fears that modern theorems are riddled with errors. Computers could fix them. But if they did, would the result still be maths?
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Maths theory holds the key to nature’s beauty
Is maths the secret of beauty? Scientists have discovered that the world’s most famous codebreaker was right when he proposed that natural shapes and patterns were ruled by a hidden formula.
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Universe is expanding too fast, say scientists
Scientists have found a troubling statistic in their observations of the universe: it is expanding about 9% faster than it should. Why is this happening? And should we be worried about it?
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You are part of the royal family. Probably.
A leading geneticist has calculated that almost every Briton is directly descended from Edward III. But many find facts like this scarcely believable. Why are we so bad at probability?