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34 Times Math Was Actually Interesting

Our old math teachers will love us for this

34 Times Math Was Actually Interesting

September 01, 2024

Sure, we may have been those spitball-spitting kids at the back of the class in high school, but we’ve grown up since then. And okay, so we rolled our eyes when the powers-that-be chose a math-based list for us, but once we started gathering interesting numbers, we really got into it!

We’d be the last people to admit this, but numbers can actually be cool.

Don’t believe us? Give these a try!

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34

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM WE USE A BASE TEN NUMBER SYSTEM, BUT WITH A BASE TWELVE SYSTEM IT IS ACTUALLY EASIER TO DO SOME MATH AND FRACTIONS. IN BASE TWELVE, ONE-THIRD IS WRITTEN AS 0.4 INSTEAD OF 0.333... THE DOZENAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA PROMOTES SWITCHING OVER TO A BASE 12 SYSTEM. — Source

33

Data

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM IN MANY REAL-WORLD DATA SETS, THE FIRST DIGIT IS MOST LIKELY LEAST BE 9. 123 BE 1, AND IS THE LIKELY 579 TO TO 468 FOR EXAMPLE, HEIGHTS OF THE TALLEST BUILDINGS IN THE WORLD USUALLY START WITH 1, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER MEASURING IN METERS OR FEET. THIS APPLIES TO EVERYTHING FROM STREET ADDRESSES TO STOCK PRICES TO LENGTHS OF RIVERS. — Source

32

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM ROMAN NUMERALS REPRESENT THE NUMBERS 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 AND 1000. IVXLCD M 1 5 10 50 100 500 1000 ROMANS USED AN S TO SHOW ONE HALF, AND DOTS TO INDICATE TWELFTHS. MDCLXVIS. = 1666 AND 7/12 — Source

31

The Freshest Random Facts!

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM A THOUSAND SECONDS IS ABOUT 16 MINUTES. 12 17 m 9 3 12 11 10 mella A MILLION SECONDS IS ABOUT ONE AND A HALF WEEKS. A BILLION SECONDS IS ALMOST 32 YEARS. — Source

30

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM THERE ARE DIFFERENT SIZES OF INFINITIES. A COUNTABLE INFINITY IS WHEN YOU START AT ONE AND COUNT UPWARDS FOREVER. AN UNCOUNTABLE INFINITY IS WHEN YOU TRY TO COUNT ALL THE DECIMALS BETWEEN ZERO AND ONE, BUT CAN'T BECAUSE THERE'S NO SMALLEST NUMBER TO START FROM. — Source

29

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM THE OPPOSITE OF INFINITY ISN'T ZERO, IT'S INFINITESIMAL. 1-18 INFINITY IS THE NUMBER LARGER THAN ALL OTHER NUMBERS. INFINITESIMAL IS THE NUMBER SMALLER THAN ALL OTHERS, BUT STILL LARGER THAN ZERO. — Source

28

A full 70% OF GUNS seized by police in Mexico can be traced back to the United States. CRACKED COM — Source

27

CRACKED.COM You're more likely to die FALLING OUT OF BED than in a plane crash. Both likelihoods are very slim: 1 in 2 million for the bed against 1 in 5 million for the plane. — Source

26

95 billion packets of ramen noodles are sold every Year. Yeah, those ramen noodles. HIM HGN This is according to the World Instant Noodle Association, and, when you do the math, adds up to 15 packs of noodles for every human being on Earth. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

Americans use 36.5 billion rolls of toilet paper each Year. That's 1/5 of all the TP in the world, even though the U.S. makes up only 4% of the global population. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED DOPPELGANGERS The chances of having an exact twin are pretty slim - only one in 135. But if you look at the bigger picture - attributes like the overall shape of your face-it's more likely that you have a doppelganger out there. — Source

23

The Freshest Random Facts!

Learning to play a piano makes you better at math. After 8 months of piano lessons, students went from scoring in the 30th to the 65th percentile on the Stanford 9 Math Test. CRACKED COM — Source

22

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED.COM MORE SERIAL KILLERS ARE BORN IN JANUARY THAN ANY OTHER MONTH A study of 293 serial killer spread across 29 countries all over the world revealed that 11.2% of those were born in January, even though the month of January has 7.9% of all births. Fun fact: Hannibal Lecter was born on January 20, 1933. — Source

21

CHOSTBUSTERS ECON REFERS TO A 35-FOOT, 600 POUND TWINKIE. A 35-FOOT TWINKIE WOULD WEIGH 5 TONS; A 600 POUND TWINKIE WOULD BE 6 FEET LONG CRACKED.COM — Source

20

П MAX SAYS THEY'VE WRITTEN OUT EVERY 216-DIGIT NUMBER THAT WOULD TAKE LONGER THAN THE AGE OF THE UNIVERSE. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

In 2020, Americans watched over 57 billion minutes of The Office MICHAEL SCOTT PAPER COMPANY INC. Netflix streams for the Dunder Mifflin crew were far ahead of the second most streamed show, Grey's Anatomy, at 39.5 billion minutes. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

CRACKED FLIPPING A PENNY When you flip a penny, it's more likely to land on tails than heads. That's because the penny's center of mass is slightly more on the heads side, making tails come up about 80% of the time. — Source

17

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED SUPER WT ROAD BISHOPSGATE MAYF BOUR 1. KINGS ROAD COLLECT €600k 2. KE £2M AS YOU PASS CAM GO MONOPOLY In the US version of Monopoly, the orange group of properties - St James Place, Tennessee Avenue, and New York Avenue - are statistically the likeliest spots for players to land when they get out of Jail. So: buy those. — Source

16

CRACKED CHANCE OF BEING BORN It's incredibly unlikely that you were born - the odds that all 150,000 generations of your lineage would remain unbroken are about one in 400 trillion. So ... go and make the most of it. — Source

15

Shuffling Cards

CRACKED SHUFFLING A DECK OF CARDS It's almost impossible to shuffle a deck of cards into the exact same order twice - it's like trying to arrange the same number of atoms as there are in our entire galaxy. So it's almost certain that every single shuffled deck of cards, ever, is unique. — Source

14

Jazz

CRACKED HANGMAN It turns out that the most difficult word to guess in Hangman is jazz. It's made up of 75% uncommon letters (J and Z) and you only get three chances to get it right. — Source

13

The nerds are coming for American sports. m E 5 27 Data-driven analysis is yielding better results than traditional methods, which has enhanced the viewing experience by unearthing new ways of understanding and appreciating sport. CRACKED — Source

12

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED Scientists used lasers and Fibonacci to create a new phase of matter. A= 1 dt Physicists shot a laser at atoms in a Fibonacci sequence, and found that it created a new phase of matter. This new phase is more robust in preserving information than the current methods used. — Source

11

Cinemetrics, a website devoted to the quantitative study of film. Film historian Yuri Tsivian believes statistical analysis of quantitative elements in films can offer new insights. His site gives researchers access to open- source film measurement software and publishes the data for scholars around the world. Cinemetrics CINEMETRICS Number of shots: 17 Last shot's length: 0.7 see Average shot length: 1.7 BCC BCU CU MCU NS MLS FS LS Other Pause End & Save (2xF 00:00:33.4 EOQ E T1 CRACKED — Source

10

Analytics

P S P 10.0000 - - - - ORGANIC - - Data is essential throughout the filmmaking process, Hollywood is analytics to help determine which scripts to greenlight, who's chosen to direct, etc. In order for different companies to share information without running into siloed data problems, they've had teams clean up and organize decades worth of data. CRACKED — Source

9

This Fact Is One Step Up Knowledge Mountain

Harvard's Applied Mathematics 141г: Computational Music Theory This class combines math, programming, and music theory to produce a uniquely quantitative study of what has traditionally been perceived to be a humanist field. 1-dt 1001 - - - - 11 0000 1.1.90 0:00.000 - - - the - P LC A T (2 EOQ CRACKED = — Source

8

This Fact Is One Step Up Knowledge Mountain

Jocks get a boost from math nerds. Motion analysis is used to understand how an athlete's foot moves within a running shoe, allowing for shoes with better mechanical properties to be created. P A II 1-dt +i) Ip A EC CRACKED — Source

7

P CFI m L Data is changing the way soccer is played. Performance data is sent to players within minutes of the final whistle, giving them detailed feedback. These insights have caused strikers to shoot less frequently from a distance, and wingers to pass more often. CRACKED — Source

6

n 1 2 II E i= A p Math can improve skin graft procedures. Studies have found that, by using mathematical models, success rates for this extremely complicated reconstructive surgery could be boosted. CRACKED — Source

5

TRACKS S P M FingerSering e F в E FingerString 1 g RideCrash S P S 8 P M Ridelle! P S M BassPlek P g BassThumb S S P g HHatClosed tunpito... E S P M HiTomFon 9 S P M LoTomCong 10 S P e Glan 11 R BY M HiTomFon 12 R F M Kink 144 (a) UR uio avenneus note dur (ma) VIII the send Y backs POLYGON 15 в R с 1.50 0.996 A44 200 34 S 2 7 1 с ٥ 5 R R 1.67 0,985 >33 80 100 2 8 a C 1.50 — Source

4

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED -n.d. Marriage mathematics. It takes five positive interactions to overcome one negative interaction in a marriage. Researchers Gottman and Levenson found this ratio may be key to happy, stable marriages. (2xFx0 EOQ — Source

3

The NBA installed I tons of tiny cameras. - - 8.10 MP P=S(1-n-d) Since 2013, SportVU cameras have tracked players' movements, which has led to an almost unrecognizable pace of acceleration and record numbers of 3-point attempts per game, thanks to the concept of 3 > 2 . CRACKED — Source

2

- - - - WE - - S - = Andor - THE - - n 1-n.d CFi E (10tr) IMDb data is used for film research. The data on IMDb can be theorized through tables, graphs, and charts, from broad to highly specific categories. Studios can get an idea of whether a particular concept will be leading the box office charts, or crashing before it even starts. I - IN - denger - - - - - - - - - - S - - I - - (2 I EOCRACKED — Source

1

The Freshest Random Facts!

I CFi i II A 1-dt The Futurama Theorem. Created by Futurama writer Ken Keeler for the Season 6 episode The Prisoner of Benda, this states that regardless of how many mind switches between two bodies have been made, they can still all be restored to their original bodies using only two extra people. CRACKED — Source

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