Coloring by Numbers Reveals Arithmetic Patterns in Fractions

A year after he started his Ph.D. in mathematics at McGill University, Matt Bowen had a problem. “I took my qualifying exams and did absolutely horribly on them,” he said. Bowen was sure that his scores didn’t reflect his mathematical skills, and he resolved to prove it. Last fall he did, when he and his adviser, Marcin Sabok, posted a major advance in the field known as Ramsey theory.

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