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Careers with maths
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From satellites to the London Olympics, all in one career

A favourite from the archive...
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Discover why the number 6174 is so mysterious.

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September 2008
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connectedness

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Is the Universe finite, with an edge, or infinite, with no edges? Or is it even stranger: finite but with no edges? It sounds far-fetched but the mathematical theory of topology makes it possible, and nobody yet knows the truth. Janna Levin tells us more.

Tags: cosmology : compact universe : connectedness : Möbius strip : Klein bottle : tiling : curvature