We analysed a totally scientific dataset of 300 legendary math professors (all over 70). Result: 79.7% have a “high‑recession” hairline. Coincidence? Absolutely.
In our BaldMaths “study”, we only sampled senior math professors — the ones who have out‑survived both their students and their hair follicles. This doesn't prove maths causes baldness. It proves that with the right biased sample, you can “prove” almost any stereotype.
Hairline score distribution (biased N = 300)
We intentionally sampled only senior professors. This is a joke dataset.
Age vs hairline score in our biased sample
Correlation: 0.139 — the main effect is simply that we only sampled the old ones.
Our dataset is simulated, not collected from real people. We generated 300 “math professors” with ages between 70 and 94 and gave each a hairline score from 0 to 2, with a very high chance of score 2.
This reproduces two things:
Pseudo-code
for each prof in 300:
age ~ Uniform(70, 94)
hairline_score ~ Biased(age) # high chance of 2BaldMaths loves bald and non‑bald mathematicians equally. This “study” is for fun and to show how data can be gamed.
Drownings, duels, taxi numbers, and impossible proofs — maths has never been boring.
Legend says a Pythagorean called Hippasus discovered irrational numbers like √2 and was drowned at sea for revealing this forbidden secret.
It marks the moment mathematics was forced to accept quantities that are not neat fractions, pushing number theory beyond simple ratios and opening the door to real analysis.
Pythagoras' theorem says that in a right-angled triangle with legs a, b and hypotenuse c, we have a² + b² = c². If you take a unit square (sides of length 1), the diagonal has length √2 by Pythagoras. The Pythagoreans believed that all quantities could be expressed as ratios of whole numbers (rationals). Showing that √2 cannot be written as p/q with integers p, q (the standard contradiction proof) revealed the existence of irrational numbers, which deeply shocked their worldview.
Georg Cantor proved that some infinities are larger than others, revolutionised set theory, and spent periods in mental hospitals after years of criticism and stress.
Modern analysis, topology and logic all rely on Cantor's set-theoretic view of infinity, so almost every advanced area of maths quietly uses ideas that were once seen as unacceptable.
Cantor distinguished between countable sets (like the integers, which can be listed as 1, 2, 3, …) and uncountable sets (like the real numbers). His diagonal argument shows that any supposed list of real numbers in [0,1] misses at least one real, so the reals are uncountable. That means |ℝ| > |ℕ| even though both are infinite. He developed transfinite cardinals like ℵ₀ (aleph-null) for the size of ℕ.
Stories say a Pythagorean who exposed a 'dangerous' irrational ratio (linked to the golden ratio) was punished by drowning for breaking the sect's perfect-numbers worldview.
It shows that even basic geometric ratios can challenge deep philosophical beliefs, and that accepting irrational numbers was essential for the later development of geometry and analysis.
The golden ratio φ satisfies φ = (1 + √5)/2 ≈ 1.618 and appears as the limiting ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers. In a regular pentagon, ratios of diagonals and sides give φ and involve √5, another irrational number.
Fermat scribbled that he had a 'truly marvellous proof' of his last theorem that the margin was too small to contain; it took mathematicians 358 years to actually prove it.
The long story from Fermat to Wiles tracks the evolution of number theory and shows how a simple-looking Diophantine equation led to deep modern tools like elliptic curves and modular forms.
Fermat's Last Theorem states that for integer n ≥ 3, the equation xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ has no non-zero integer solutions. In the 1990s, Andrew Wiles proved it using deep tools from algebraic number theory and the theory of elliptic curves and modular forms.
Gödel showed that any sufficiently powerful formal system contains true statements that cannot be proved inside it, destroying Hilbert's dream of a complete, mechanical mathematics.
It sets absolute limits on what formal proofs and algorithms can achieve, influencing logic, computer science, and philosophy of mathematics and knowledge.
Hilbert's program hoped to formalise all of mathematics in a consistent axiomatic system. Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem says: in any consistent, effectively axiomatizable system capable of expressing basic arithmetic, there exists a statement G such that neither G nor ¬G is provable in the system.
Évariste Galois invented the foundations of group theory and modern field theory, then died in a mysterious duel at 20 after spending his last night writing maths notes.
Galois’ work explains why some equations have formulas and others do not, and it introduced symmetry as a central organising idea in modern algebra and beyond.
Galois theory links the structure of field extensions to groups of automorphisms (Galois groups). It gives a clean criterion for when a polynomial equation can be solved by radicals, explaining why general quintic equations have no formula like the quadratic formula.
Hardy thought taxi number 1729 was dull; Ramanujan replied it was 'very interesting' as the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways.
It illustrates how deep structure hides in ordinary integers and hints at the kind of number-theoretic intuition that drives research in Diophantine equations and additive number theory.
1729 is now called the first Hardy–Ramanujan number. It satisfies 1729 = 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³. More generally, mathematicians study numbers that can be represented in many ways as sums of powers.
The four color theorem says any flat map can be colored with just four colors so that no neighbouring regions share a color – and its 1976 proof relied heavily on computer checking.
It marks a turning point where computers became essential partners in proving theorems and raised new questions about what counts as a proof.
In 1976, Appel and Haken used a computer to check thousands of reducible configurations, showing that every possible map can be reduced to one of these cases that can be colored with four colors. If no human can feasibly verify all the cases by hand, is it still a proof?
The central limit theorem explains why so many real-world quantities – exam marks, heights, errors – end up looking like a nice bell curve even when the underlying causes are messy.
It justifies why normal distributions appear everywhere and underpins much of statistical inference, error analysis and data science.
If X₁, X₂, … are independent, identically distributed random variables with finite mean μ and variance σ², then the normalised sum (X₁ + … + Xₙ − nμ)/(σ√n) converges in distribution to a standard normal variable as n → ∞.
Imaginary numbers were once dismissed as absurd 'impossible' quantities; now they power signal processing, quantum mechanics, control theory and the algorithms inside your phone.
They show how an idea that seems philosophically dubious can become a standard tool that makes modern technology possible.
The imaginary unit i is defined by i² = −1. Complex numbers a + bi extend the real numbers and form a complete field that is algebraically closed. In A-level terms, complex numbers allow us to solve equations like x² + 1 = 0 and to represent oscillations and waves compactly as exponentials.
Whether you're a student, teacher, or parent — BaldMaths has tools built for you.