Most of you have used a navigation app like Google Maps for your travels at some point. These apps rely on algorithms that compute shortest paths through vast networks. Now imagine scaling that task ...

Abstract: Graph theory is a powerful tool for addressing problems involving discrete structures, such as determining the shortest length of connected river networks or the shortest distance between ...

A clear science explanation breaks down how lightning forms and why it branches through the air instead of traveling in a straight line to the ground. Labor to pass super tax changes with support of ...

Shortest path algorithms sit at the heart of modern graph theory and many of the systems that move people, data, and goods around the world. After nearly seventy years of relying on the same classic ...

Descriptive set theorists study the niche mathematics of infinity. Now, they’ve shown that their problems can be rewritten in the concrete language of algorithms. All of modern mathematics is built on ...

When Edsger W. Dijkstra published his algorithm in 1959, computer networks were barely a thing. The algorithm in question found the shortest path between any two nodes on a graph, with a variant ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. If you want to solve a tricky problem, it often helps to get organized. You might, for example, break the problem into pieces and tackle ...