A century ago, the great mathematician David Hilbert posed a probing question in pure mathematics. A recent advance in optimization theory is bringing Hilbert’s work into a world of self-driving cars.

Let s q (n) denote the sum of the digits in the g-ary expansion of an integer n. In 1978, Stolarsky showed that $\mathop {lim inf}\limits_{n \to \infty } {{s_2 (n^2 )} \over {s_2 (n)}} = 0$ . He ...

If you’ve ever taken an algebra or physics class, then you’ve met a parabola, the simple curve that can model how a ball flies through the air. The most important part of a parabola is the vertex — ...