Maths facts guaranteed to bowl you over include this one about cake! And who doesn’t love cake??
- Did you know that you can cut a cake three times to get eight slices? Conduct your own experiment at home! We insist…
- Here’s another one that always amazes our students. Add the two numbers on opposite sides of a dice. What number do you get every time? Seven!
Go, on. You won’t be able to resist checking that one out.
- Talking of seven, it’s a special number… There are seven days in a week; seven colours in a rainbow; there are seven seas and continents. There are seven ancient wonders of the world. And there are seven basic music notes.
‘Seven’ is not to be messed with.
More Fabulous Facts about Maths
Ever heard the term ‘jiffy?’ ‘I’ll do it in a jiffy,‘ is the usual context – meaning I’ll do it in a bit.
Well… A ‘jiffy’ is actually a unit of time which means 1/100th of a second. Now that’s fast!
Here’s another oddity for you. Did you know that every very odd number has an ‘e’ in it? One, three, five, seven, nine… Clever stuff!
More wordy maths facts to sink your teeth into:
- Forty (40!) is the only number spelt in alphabetical order. What are the chances of that?
- The word ‘hundred’ comes from the old Norse term, ‘hundrath.’ This number actually added up to 120 – not 100!
- Over 20,000 words have the letter A in them. When it comes to numbers, the first word with an A in it is …. {drum roll} one thousand.
- Americans call Maths Math as Mathematics is a singular noun. They are adamant that Mathematics must be Math when shortened – not Maths – for the same reason. Who’s right?
Is 13 lucky for some?
Another curious number is 13! History often equates this most unfortunate of numbers with bad luck.
Friday the 13th is widely believed to be the day when bad luck comes calling! Relax though: it’s just superstition as no evidence has ever proved this to be true.
The number 13 does prove to be fascinating though… For instance, eleven plus two is an anagram of twelve plus one. Perfect – as the answer to both equations is 13.
Spookily, there are 13 letters in both anagrams.
Other lucky 13 facts are:
- In Greek Mythology, Zeus was the 13th God and the most powerful
- The Aztecs believed 13 was a sacred number that symbolised time. Their weeks had 13 days in them! Interestingly, we have four seasons – each with 13 weeks in them.
- 13 is the age considered by many cultures to be when a child becomes a teenager – and is considered more mature. Though it doesn’t seem fair if spots are part of the equation..!
Is Maths a Conundrum for you?
- Do numbers fry your brain?
- Does geometry, trig or algebra get you in a muddle?
- And if statistics or probability send you into a flat spin, it’s time to call in the Mathematical experts at 121 Home Tutors
As we’ve mentioned before, Maths is a Marmite subject. But there is hope if you just don’t get it.
One-to-one Maths lessons whether online, at home or at a tutor’s can ease all those Mathematical headaches helping you make more sense of numbers.
Contact us when you want to make Maths make sense!
Tags: Algebra, dice, equations, Geometry, jiffy, lucky number 7, Math, number 13, Probability, trig