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Category: Mathematics & statistics

By The Generalist Posted on April 6, 2022January 25, 2023

The doomsday algorithm

Want to work out what day of the week for any date? Just use the doomsday algorithm.

Categories: Mathematics & statistics, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on February 24, 2022January 25, 2023

The scientists of Mars

When asked why we have no proof of extraterrestrial life, the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard joked that Martians were already among us… they just called themselves Hungarians.

Categories: 20th century history, Computer science, Europe, Mathematics & statistics, North & Central America, Physics & chemistry, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on February 8, 2022January 25, 2023

Cryptographic magic

Steganographia is a late 15th / early 16th century German book of magic… but it’s not actually about magic.

Categories: Early modern history, Europe, Language, Literature, Mathematics & statistics, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on January 12, 2022January 25, 2023

Don’t trust the small numbers

In mathematics, the Pólya conjecture is true for every natural number up to 906,150,256… and then it’s not.

Categories: Europe, Mathematics & statistics
By The Generalist Posted on December 30, 2021December 30, 2021

Abnormal normal dice

A pair of Sicherman dice have numbers ranging from 1 to 8 on their faces, but roll two of them together and they produce the same totals as a pair of normal dice.

Categories: Games & sport, Mathematics & statistics
By The Generalist Posted on December 16, 2021January 25, 2023

Experimental pi

If you have a piece of striped paper and some sticks, you can estimate the value of pi through a simple experiment.

Categories: Mathematics & statistics
By The Generalist Posted on November 4, 2021January 25, 2023

Will Rogers paradox

Someone (not Will Rogers) once joked that “When the Okies left Oklahoma and moved to California, they raised the average intelligence level in both states.” This quirk of statistics has some surprising implications for cancer survival rates.

Categories: Health & medicine, Mathematics & statistics
By The Generalist Posted on September 30, 2021September 29, 2021

The Yale blackboard rebellion

In 1830, nearly half of the mathematics class at Yale was expelled for refusing to use a blackboard in their exams.

Categories: 19th century history, Education & philosophy, Mathematics & statistics, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on September 23, 2021September 22, 2021

Da Vinci’s fractal trees

Leonardo da Vinci observed that tree branches together are always as thick as the trunk beneath them. This is true, and there are some good ideas why.

Categories: Art, Europe, Mathematics & statistics, Physics & chemistry, Plants
By The Generalist Posted on September 10, 2021September 8, 2021

Cosmic ladder (Part 2)

To measure distances in deep space, you need to look for candles in the darkness. [2 of 2]

Categories: 20th century history, Astronomy, Mathematics & statistics, North & Central America, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on September 9, 2021January 25, 2023

Cosmic ladder (Part 1)

It’s a lot more difficult to measure distances in space than you might think. [1 of 2]

Categories: Astronomy, Mathematics & statistics, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on August 27, 2021August 26, 2021

Ghost leg

Ghost leg is a technique to randomly match up two groups – assigning a list of chores to a list of people, for example. And all you need is a drawing of a ladder.

Categories: East Asia, Mathematics & statistics
By The Generalist Posted on July 9, 2021July 9, 2021

Mathematical collective

Since 1939 an author named Nicolas Bourbaki has published a series of volumes on pure mathematics. But Bourbaki does not exist.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Mathematics & statistics
By The Generalist Posted on June 22, 2021June 21, 2021

Math homework

In 1939 a student at UC Berkeley copied down two homework problems from the class blackboard. He solved them in a few days… and then discovered that they were two of the thorniest unsolved theorems in statistics.

Categories: 20th century history, Mathematics & statistics, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on March 7, 2021March 6, 2021

Mathematical coincidence

A billionth of a century is approximately pi seconds. The diameter of the Earth is roughly half a billion inches.

Categories: Mathematics & statistics, Sciences, Weights & measures
Birthday cake
By The Generalist Posted on February 26, 2021January 25, 2023

The birthday paradox

Put 70 people in a room and there’s a 99.9% chance that two of them share a birthday. Why?

Categories: Mathematics & statistics, Sciences

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