First of all, the Republicans would gain a sudden appreciation of the basic mathematics of federal finances.

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His method relies on some fairly basic mathematics indeed, it uses another of Fermat's theorems, known as Fermat's little theorem.

ECONOMIST: Number theory

In the process of buying and turning round more than 30 companies, he realised that a third of the employees he encountered were illiterate and two-thirds could not do basic mathematics.

ECONOMIST: Lessons Cleveland can teach

The Bourbaki group set out to organise and unify all the basic texts of mathematics.

ECONOMIST: Andr�� Weil

Mr Weil's advances in algebraic geometry and number theory which in 1994 helped him win the equivalent of the Nobel prize in mathematics, the Kyoto prize in basic science are so abstruse they are inaccessible to the layman.

ECONOMIST: Andr�� Weil

"Indeed in our view such competence is central to the success of primary mathematics, so much so that we would recommend an earlier emphasis for the mastery of some basic skills such as multiplication tables, " he said in a paper due to be published later this week.

BBC: Primary maths plan threatens 'too much too soon'

The International Basic Sciences Programme (IBSP) of UNESCO and the International Mathematical Union (IMU) are leading this Mathematics of Planet Earth Day and the international exhibition which is an important component of the year of scientific and outreach activities, Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 (MPE2013), under the patronage of UNESCO.

UNESCO: Mathematics of Planet Earth Day