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You probably know that half of 12 is six. But the other day, I caught a glimpse of a clock peeking between buildings. At that moment, I noticed that sometimes, half of 12 is seven. How is this possible?

When you multiply a whole number by itself, you get a square number. When you take three copies of a whole number and multiply them all together, you get a cube number. There’s only one two digit number that is both a square and a cube. Can you work out what number it is?

Jenny’s hard at work on a building site. This problem will tax her brain as well as her brawn!

It’s that time of year again! The winner of the Abel prize, mathematics’ answer to the Nobel, has been announced. This year’s winner is Robert Langlands, a mathematician more famous for asking questions than answering them.

Terri’s just about to leave to go to a party. She’s trying to work out whether to walk or ride her bike. If she walks at a brisk pace of 5 kilometres per hour, she’ll be an hour late. If she rides her bike at 10 kilometres per hour, she’ll be an hour early!

You’ve just received a secret coded message: AD, BA, BH, CE, DB, DI, EF You know it follows a pattern, but can you work out what pair of letters come next?

1936 is a square number. That means you can make it by multiplying a whole number by itself: 1936 = 44 x 44

Late last year, Jonathan Pace’s computer found something special. Jonathan is an electrical engineer who also manages computers for charities, so he has a lot of computers, but this one was nothing out of the ordinary. Except for one thing: the computer was running software from the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search

Double Helix magazine is excited to announce that we’re merging our newsletters Science by Email and Maths by Email, and adding a splash of technology and engineering news. Keep an eye out for our new look email, called Double Helix Extra!

Blood left at a crime scene can tell you a lot about the events. To rewind the clock and look back in time, you just need a ruler and some trigonometry.