In our daily lives, there are two things that we can tell: random event, and those due to cause and effect. However some supposedly random things are simply organized in such a way that we can't help by recognising a cause to their non-coincidental effect.

We see it in nature (the Golden Ratio), and constructs by humans (the movement of share prices). But what about in pure numbers? Especially the most mysterious kind: prime numbers.

It's funny how some of the things we do to stave off boredom tent to be things that stimulate or challenge our minds. Or maybe it's not a coincidence? The Sumerians who developed the first concepts that eventually became mathematics also developed the particularly compelling Royal Game of Ur, and the same can be said with Indians and chess.

Coincidence? I think not!

Mathematics, the basis of everything from physics to chemistry to biology. And hence, it must be older than any of them. So to understand nature and it's inner workings, we must first understand maths.

And what better way to understand something than to trace its history and development?

Sometimes even the most terrible disasters have serendipitous consequences. Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812 for instance have been said to be a worthwhile "investment" just because of a single chart that was drawn 57 years after. This chart have been said to be a triumph that even the great French general (who was an amateur mathematician himself) would approve of.

As they say, when life gives you lemons...

Remember when we used to dabble with alien geometries? IFSA is going back to our roots (which was planted in our first article about our logo), and this time we're tackling a cousin of that nefarious Mobius strip...