Those who understand compound interest are destined to collect
it. Those who don't are doomed to pay it - or so says a well-
known source of financial advice. But what is compound interest,
and why is it so important? John H. Webb explains. In the late
1940s, American painter Jackson Pollock dripped paint from a can
on to vast canvases rolled out across the floor of his barn.
Richard P. Taylor explains that Pollock's patterns are really
fractals - the fingerprint of Nature. One of the most striking
and powerful means of presenting numbers is completely ignored
in the mathematics that is taught in schools, and it rarely
makes an appearance in university courses. Yet the continued
fraction is one of the most revealing representations of many
numbers, sometimes containing extraordinary patterns and
symmetries. John D. Barrow explains. Kevin Jones investigates
the links between music and mathematics, throwing in limericks,
Fibonacci and Scott Joplin along the way. Plus is proud to
present an extended version of hi