I was reminded that this weekend (Saturday, to be exact, 3/14) was National Pi Day. While it’s not as trippy as 4.20, 3.14 is a head spinner, too. In honor of the infinitely baffling, some math FactSlaps:
Ancient Babylonians did math in base 60 instead of base 10. That’s why we have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle.
Students who chew gum have better math test scores than those who do not, a Baylor University study found.
2,520 is the smallest number that can be exactly divided by all the numbers 1 to 10.
There are 177,147 ways to tie a tie, according to mathematicians.
In 1900, all the world’s mathematical knowledge could be written in about 80 books; today it would fill more than 100,000 books.
The Birthday Paradox says that in a group of just 23 people, there’s a 50% chance that at least two will have the same birthday.
2200 years ago, Eratosthenes estimated the Earth’s circumference using math, without ever leaving Egypt. He was remarkably accurate. Christopher Columbus later studied him.
Mathematician Paul Erdos could calculate in his head, given a person’s age, how many seconds they had lived, when he was just 4 years old.
In middle school, 74% of girls express interest in science, technology, engineering and math, but when choosing a college major, just 0.4% of high school girls select computer science.
The largest prime number ever found is more than 22 million digits long.
The discoveries of Greek mathematicians such as Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes are still used in mathematical teaching today.
Arabic numerals, like the ones we use today in English, were actually invented in India.
It says a lot about a person. Is it one of the original seven George Carlin said could not be spoken on television (shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits)? Is it quaint (ass or dammit, with two m’s)? Is it an epithet? And what do you use it for? To express anger? To express frustration? To express…yourself?
Mine is goddamn. I can still remember when the word was unofficially one of Carlin’s verboten. Well, the full word. The networks would let you get away with “damn.” But god forbid you add the unholy predicate.
So it automatically became my go-to phrase for anything that doesn’t go my way. My team lost? Goddamn. I screwed up my taxes? Goddamn. There isn’t syrup in every one of the squares of my waffle? Goddamnit!
Today, the word become even more precious to me when I stumbled upon this FactSlap: Latin had about 800 obscene words; English has only about 20.
Well goddamn.
Onward, FactSlaps!
A 2018 study of Hitler’s teeth, held in Moscow, claims to prove he died after taking cyanide and shooting himself in the head in 1945.
The fastest a dolphin can swim near the surface is 33.5 mph.
Netflix is responsible for 15% of global Internet traffic.
About 20% of the world’s tech founders are immigrants, even though immigrants only make up about 4 percent of the world’s population.
In 1924, half the cars in the world were Fords.
No one knows what Machu Picchu was used for, but some believe it was a royal estate or a secret ceremonial center.
In 4 of the 5 largest cities in the U.S., it’s cheaper to rely on Uber than to own a car, a 2018 report found.
During WWII, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with Bubonic Plague.
Bart Simpson’s name is an anagram of BRAT. His full name is Bartholomew Jojo Simpson.
Germany had highest numbers of asylum requests in 2015.
Elon Musk was ousted as CEO of PayPal because he insisted on switching from Unix-based infrastructure to Windows.
In 2004, Los Angeles planted a pine tree in memory of Beatle, George Harrison. Ten years later, it died of a beetle infestation.
There is a version of the Bible translated into Hawaiian Pidgin called ‘Da Jesus Book’.
Bill Gates continued to fly coach until 1997, when his net worth was already US$36 billion.
In more than half of U.S. cities, it is illegal for homeless people to sit or lay on the sidewalk.
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