How Ancient War Trickery Is Alive in Math Today
Legend says the Chinese military once used a mathematical ruse to conceal its troop numbers. The technique relates to many deep areas of modern math research. The post How Ancient War Trickery Is Alive in Math Today first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Imagine you’re a general in ancient times and you want to keep your troop counts secret from your enemies. But you also need to know this information yourself. So you turn to a math trick that allows you to achieve both aims. In a morning drill you ask your soldiers to line up in rows of five. You note that you end up with three soldiers in the last row. Then you have them re-form in rows of eight...
Originally published in Quanta Abstractions.
