IN the preface Prof. Peirce writes:—“Logarithms ought not to be comprised, as they often are, in the midst of a treatise on algebra. For, in the first place, they are not algebraic functions; and, ...

You may find this hard to believe, but there are people still alive today who once did their mathematical calculations by sliding sticks back and forth. No keypads, no batteries, no LEDs. Just sticks.

In Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco's The Lesson, a professor asks a student to multiply 3,755,998,251 by 5,162,303,508. To his amazement, the answer comes quick ...