An interactive graphical experiment lets you discover the value of one of the most important numerical quantities in mathematics. ... read more >>

I have just returned from two meetings in Europe, the 26th Biennial Conference on Numerical Analysis at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, and Sparse Days III in Saint-Girons, France.... read more >>

Augustin (Austin) Dubrulle deserves to be better known in the numerical linear algebra community. His version of the implicit QR algorithm for computing the eigenvalues of a symmetric tridiagonal matrix that was published in a half-page paper in Numerische Mathematik in 1970 is faster than Wilkinson's version published earlier. It is still a core algorithm in MATLAB today. ... read more >>

The 1960 programming language ALGOL 60 influenced the design of many subsequent languages, including C and a miniature language called PL/0. I based the design of the first MATLAB on PL/0.... read more >>

Fritz Bauer, eminent German computer scientist and last surviving member of the organizing committee of the 1964 Gatlingburg Conference on Numerical Algebra, passed away on March 26 at the age of 90.... read more >>

This is the third in a multi-part series on the MATLAB random number generators. MATLAB has used variants of George Marsaglia's ziggurat algorithm to generate normally distributed random numbers for almost twenty years. ... read more >>

This is the second of a multi-part series about the MATLAB random number generators. If you ask for help rng, you will get lots of information, including the fact that there are three modern generators.... read more >>

This is the first of a multi-part series about the MATLAB random number generators.... read more >>

My experience with the forthcoming MATLAB watch exceeds my most optimistic expectations. The watch has not yet been announced officially, but a few of us have been testing prototypes for the past several weeks.... read more >>

I came across this "ornamental geometric inequality" in a tribute to Lothar Collatz.... read more >>