Math Tidbits – WeUseMath.org

0! = 1

0! = 1 (zero factorial equals one) . . . 5! = 5x4x3x2x1 = 120 4! = 4x3x2x1 = 24

1st Woman Mathematician

In 400 AD, Hypatia writes commentaries on Diophantus and Apollonius. She is the first recorded female mathematician and she distinguishes

Abacus

The abacus was developed in the Middle East and areas around the Mediterranean in about 3000 BC.

Algebra

Around 825 A.D. in Baghdad, Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khwarizimi wrote a book called “Kitab al-jabr wa al-muqabalah”, which means “The science

Archimedes

250 BC: In On the Sphere and the Cylinder, Archimedes gives the formulae for calculating the volume of a sphere

Art Garfunkel

Singer Art Garfunkel holds an MA in mathematics from Columbia. He started on his PhD, but quit in order to

Birthday

In a group of 23 people, at least two have the same birthday with a probability greater than ½. http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/index.shtml

Bones

Paleolithic people in central Europe recorded the first numbers on bones.

Card Hand

There are 2, 598, 960 five-card hands possible in a 52-card deck of cards. http://www.jayp.net/trivia/science1.htm

China Single File

If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate

Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, earned a degree in mathematics.

Danica McKellar

Actress Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years) was a math major. She now advocates math education through bestsellers like Math

Date and Time

At 12:34 on May 6, 1978, there was a peculiar lining up of dates and hours that will not happen

David Robinson

San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson received a BS in mathematics from the United States Naval Academy.

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was a pioneer in professional nursing. She was the first person in the English-speaking world to apply statistics

Four

Four is the only number with the same amount of letters as its actual value.

Frank Ryan

Frank Ryan, star quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the sixties, received his degree in mathematics. He also received a

Googol

“Googol” is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by a hundred zero’s. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta,

Greeks

Greeks began to use written numerals in about 450 BC.

Hardy-Weinberg

In 1908, Hardy and Weinberg present a law describing how the proportions of dominant and recessive genetic traits would be

Harry Blackmun

Former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun received a degree in mathematics from Harvard.

Incas

The Incas and certain other pre Columbian tribes in Peru developed the Decimal System hundreds of years before it was

J. P. Morgan

J. P. Morgan, banking, steel, and railroad tycoon, majored in mathematics.

Jiffy

A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

Letter ‘A’

From number 0 to 1000, the letter ‘A’ only appears in 1000 (one thousand).

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, majored in mathematics.

Michael Jordan

Basketball player Michael Jordan started out as a math major but switched majors his Jr. Year.

New York Hair

At any given time in New York there live at least two people with the same number of hairs. http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/index.shtml

Ocean Horizon

If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon will be about three statute miles

Palindrome

111, 111, 111 x 111, 111, 111 = 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321, which is a palindrome (read the

Pattern of an Odd Number

Putting an odd number of zeros between the following numbers below to form a new number, eleven is a factor

Pi = 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825

Quadratic

Babylonians solved the first quadratic equation in about 1950 BC.

Recite Pi

Gaurav Rajav, a 15-year old Virginia high school student, recited 8, 784 digits of Pi — the non-repeating and non-terminating

Reindeer

Assuming Rudolph was in front, there are 40320 ways to arrange the other eight reindeer. http://www.jayp.net/trivia/science1.htm

Ruler vs. Compass

Everything you can do with a ruler and compass you can do with the compass alone. http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/index.shtml

Teri Hatcher

Teri Hatcher (Lois Lane on “Lois and Clark”) was a mathematics and engineering major at DeAnza Junior College.

Virginia Wade

Virginia Wade, Wimbledon champion, received a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Sussex.

Zero

The number zero was invented independently in India and by the Maya. In India a decimal system was used, like