How a 16th century pirate accidentally spawned a centuries-old math problem

Scientific American · Manon Bischoff · 2026-10-27 18:00 UTC

A question posed by Sir Walter Raleigh about cannonballs inadvertently led to a puzzle that mathematicians have been trying to solve for centuries

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Opinions about Sir Walter Raleigh, who sailed the seas in the 16th century, vary widely. Was he a gifted navigator and explorer or a brutal pirate who terrorized the waves? According to one legend, Raleigh was gentlemanly enough to place his cloak in a mud puddle so that Queen Elizabeth I wouldn’t get her feet dirty. But less well known is that with a simple question, he profoundly influenced an area of mathematics that experts still puzzle over today.

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