Here is a list of 25 possible topics that serve as great math IA ideas. And keep in mind that in a math IA, it is more important to pick a topic that genuinely motivates you to display personal engagement than to pick something that sounds harder but does not resonate with you.

25 Unique Math IA Ideas

  1. Arc lengths from integration techniques

  2. Architecture and mathematics: the golden ratio

  3. Bertrand paradox and probabilities

  4. Cat’s cradle and the mathematics of knots

  5. Chaos theory and the logistic map

  6. Chess and the eight Queens puzzle

  7. Conditional probability and the Monty Hall problem

  8. Describing the vibrations of drums with Bessel functions

  9. Dirac delta function and its applications

  10. Elliptical geometry: when the sum of the angles of a triangle does not equal 180º

  11. Euler’s identity: complex numbers and mathematical beauty

  12. Fourier transformations

  13. Fractals in nature

  14. Markov chains and random walks

  15. Modular arithmetic: when 2+2 is not always equal to 4

  16. Möbius strip: the strange world of non-orientable surfaces

  17. Simpson’s paradox and the strange outcomes of misused statistics

  18. Special functions: error function and normal distributions

  19. Surprising ways of finding Pi: Gaussian integral and the Leibniz Formula

  20. The Koch snowflake: fractals and the tessellation of plane

  21. The Mandelbrot Set: when fractals meet complex numbers

  22. The Logistic function and its applications (population growth, neural networks, or linguistics)

  23. The Gambler’s ruin: how beneficial chances are never beneficial in the end

  24. The wave equation: how differential equations can be used to find the shape of a music note.

  25. Topology: when a coffee mug and a donut are one and the same