Have you ever wondered about the mathematics behind the idea of "six degrees of separation?" The Erd's Number Project offers several fairly comprehensive lists of co-author relationships to elaborate (with a bit of humor) studies of the dynamics involved in "the collaboration graph," which the website says is "a 'real-life' fairly large graph for combinatorialists to study." The co-author...

Eric Weisstein's World of Science supplies great, online encyclopedias in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and mathematics, as well as a biography of renowned scientists. Users can find excellent, concise explanations of countless concepts. The website is well linked and, therefore, easy to traverse. Everyone, from grade school students to competent professionals, can utilize this amazing resource...

The Mathematics Department at the British Columbia Institute of Technology succeeds in demonstrating the usefulness of mathematics in our lives through examples detailed at this site. The examples are divided into eight different mathematical categories and seventeen technological fields, including civil and structural engineering, mining technology, and surveying. Not all math categories are...

Expii functions as an interactive series of math and science textbooks. Po-Shen Loh, a math professor at Carnegie Mellon University, created Expii with the aim of making math and science instruction more interactive and collaborative. The resource can be navigated in one of two ways: users may either search for a specific topic, such as "quadratic equations" or "Newton's first law," or they may...

There's a great deal of interesting research going on at Vanderbilt University, and their in-house online research magazine titled "Exploration" offers up detailed stories about some of this compelling work. Visitors to the site will enjoy looking through detailed multimedia presentations on the cosmological nature of diamonds, the facts of life in a cancer laboratory, and those unstoppable...

You've probably been to a playground, but have you been to the Geometry Playground? It's just as much fun, and it may change the way you think about geometry. Created by the good folks at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, this exhibit is meant to complement the traveling exhibit which has been featured in other science museums around the United States. The exhibit here contains three sections:...

Throughout history, there have been many famous curves. In this case, the famous curves profiled here have names such as rhodonea, right strophoid, and the Kampyle of Eudoxus. These curves belong to the world of the mathematical sciences, and they are offered up for teachers and the generally curious by the staff at the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St. Andrews....

In the 1970s and 1980s, many countries in the Middle East found themselves flush with an oil boom, both in terms of production and in terms of its buying power and price. This recent 142-page report created by the World Bank reports on what some of these countries are planning to do with these increasing revenue streams, and some of the results may be a bit surprising. The report notes that oil...

While some may know fractals primarily from their use in abstract painting and African art, fractals are important elements within the world of mathematics. For those who seek to learn more about the construction of fractals and their uses, this very nice Flash-enabled feature from Daniel Gries at Merrimack College will definitely come in handy. This particular Flash applet draws fractals by means...

This is one of the best online resources about fractals, and is "meant to support a first course in fractal geometry for students without especially strong mathematical preparation." The site is incredibly deep, providing everything from the most basic definitions and non-technical discussions to involved mathematical formulations. Interactive Java applets, downloadable software for the PC and...