Interesting Facts about Mathematics

Avnish Yadav
17 May, 2018



  1. Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica contained a simple calculation error that went unnoticed for 300 years.
  2. Newton invented calculus in about the same amount of time the average student learns it.
  3. 2200 years ago, Eratosthenes estimated the Earth's circumference using math, without ever leaving Egypt. He was remarkably accurate. Christopher Columbus later studied him.
  4. The largest prime number ever found is more than 22 million digits long.
  5. The Millennium Prize is a US$1 million award given to whoever can solve any 1 of 7 math problems, but to date only 1 of the problems has been solved.
  6. 2013 was the first year since 1432 that's a rearrangement of four consecutive numbers.
  7. The highest accuracy calculations at NASA use just 15 decimals of Pi.
  8. In many Israeli schools, algebra is taught without the use of the symbol "+" as it looks like a Christian cross. They use an inverted "T" instead.
  9. Taking Pi to 39 digits allows you to measure the circumference of the observable universe to within the width of a single hydrogen atom.
  10. The word ‘hundred' derives from ‘hundra' in Old Norse, which originally meant 120.
  11. Zero is the only number which can not be represented by Roman numerals.
  12. What comes after a million, billion and trillion? A quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion and undecillion
  13. Plus (+) and Minus (-) sign symbols were used as early as 1489 A.D
  14. 2 and 5 are the only primes that end in 2 or 5
  15. An icosagon is a shape with 20 sides
  16. Among all shapes with the same perimeter, a circle has the largest area.
  17. Among all shapes with the same area, circle has the shortest perimeter
  18. 40 when written "forty" is the only number with letters in alphabetical order, while "one" is the only one with letters in reverse order
  19. FOUR is the only number in the English language that is spelled with the same number of letters as the number itself
  20. From 0 to 1,000, the letter "A" only appears in 1,000 ("one thousand")
  21. 12,345,678,987,654,321 is the product of 111,111,111 x 111,111,111. Notice the sequence of the numbers 1 to 9 and back to 1.
  22. Have you ever noticed that the opposite sides a die always add up to seven (7)
  23. Trigonometry is the study of the relationship between the angles of triangles and their sides
  24. Abacus is considered the origin of the calculator
  25. Here is an interesting trick to check divisibility of any number by number 3. A number is divisible by three if the sum of its digits is divisible by three (3)
  26. Magic of number nine (9). Multiply any number with nine (9 ) and then sum all individual digits of the result (product) to make it a single digit, the sum of all these individual digits would always be nine (9).
  27. If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5...) the total is 5050
  28. A jiffy is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second
  29. Have you heard about a Palindrome Number? It is a number that reads the same backward and forward, e.g. 12421
  30. Have you heard about Fibonacci? It is the sequence of numbers wherein a number is a result of adding the two numbers before it! Here is an example: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and so on
  31. Ancient Babylonians did math in base 60 instead of base 10. That's why we have 60 seconds in a minute and 360 degrees in a circle.
  32. 2,520 is the smallest number that can be exactly divided by all the numbers from 1 to 10.
  33. When number 1 is divided by 998001. The answer would give you a complete sequence from 000 to 999 in order.
  34. There are 177,147 ways to tie a tie, according to mathematicians.
  35. In 1900, all the world's mathematical knowledge could be written in about 80 books; today it would fill more than 100,000 books.
  36. Pizza has a radius of “z” and height “a”, and therefore its volume is Pi x z x z x a, which makes up Pizza.
  37. Multiplying 21978 by 4 reverses the order of the numbers: 87912.
  38. Π, e, φ, √2 are popular irrational numbers.
  39. Seven is most commonly used numeric in human culture. We have Seven Wonders, Seven Rainbow colors, Seven seas, Seven Dwarfs and Seven days of the week. Even James Bond is 007.
  40. Any two opposite sides of a dice, when added make 7.
  41. Number 7 is the most popular number of all. It is because of many reasons like this is arithmetically unique. It is the only number you can’t really multiply or divide and still keep it in that group.
  42. Zero is the only number with the most number of the names. Zero is also called naught, nil, zilch, naught, and zip.
  43. ‘Google’ was derived from a misspelled word ‘googol’. Googol means 1 followed by 100 zeroes.
  44. Advanced mathematics need abstract thinking which computers cannot handle.


Thanks.
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