<p>Dr Hannah Fry investigates the hidden patterns behind terrorism and asks whether mathematics could be used to predict the next 9/11.</p><p>When computer scientists decided to study the severity and frequency of 30,000 terrorist attacks worldwide, they found an distinctive pattern hiding in the data.</p><p>Even though the events spanned 5,000 cities in 187 countries over 40 years, every single attack fitted neatly onto a curve, described by an equation known as a 'power law'.</p><p>Now this pattern is helping mathematicians and social scientists understand the mechanisms underlying global terrorism.</p><p>Could these modelling techniques be used to predict if, and when, another attack the size of 9/11 will occur?</p><p>Producer: Michelle Martin.</p>
