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You’ll never look at a number the same way again

38 Unbelievable Stats and Mathematical Oddities That Will Clog Up Your Brainpipes

October 06, 2024

Looks like you’ve got a little stats traffic jam somewhere between your eyes and brain today. In fact, it seems like it really bottlenecks at the comprehension stage of the journey, and that makes total sense. These numbers are just too shocking to let through without some time for a proper fathoming. There’s no rush. They’ll all get to your brain soon enough.

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38

ERATOSTHENES 276 BC-194 BC R CRACKED COM This ancient Greek mathematician correctly calculated the Earth's circumference over 000 years ago. He also i — Source: American Physical Society

37

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM BEHOLD, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EQUATION IN THE WORLD! in 1 + e =0 NO, I'M NOT GOING TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU. — Source

36

The equations on the background in (4) Solhi The Big Bang Ing ٤٥٦٤ 500 & والدف Theory are 194 with of mathematically a accurate. TVV.c. have shyhns) M=X Y Y Medach PLUR DEVOC Y:Beic DC-DC-TOO /Y1 DS.DC.O V/v =-2 Рыш = 1973 sample Y/T David e Saltzberg, a professor at UCLA studying particle physics, works as the science consultant on the show. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

RESEARCHERS HAVE ANEW FORMULA TO FIND OUT A DOG'S AGE IN HUMAN YEARS. The updated equation is human years = = 16 In (dog's age) + 31 CRACKED COM — Source: EurekAlert

34

ACCORDING TO THE DRAKE EQUATION, WHICH ESTIMATES CRAUN THE ODDS OF THERE BEING ALIEN LIFE NEARBY... N=Rpnefe fi Fc L ne L the galaxy should be overrun

33

Statistics That Change How You See the World - People think America’s is the highest, but then America is a big, rich country. In terms of military sp — Source

32

Lefties: 1, Righties: 0.

CRACKED LEFT-HANDEDNESS IN SPORTS Lefties have a statistical advantage in sports that involve direct one-on-one interaction, like baseball, tennis, and boxing. This is because they are a bit of a surprise, since most opponents aren't used to facing someone who is left-handed. — ABC / DW

31

8 Statistics state that around 27 people die every year due to working around elevators. CRACKEDCON

30

90% of the entire Indian population got one dose of the COVID vaccine. Vaccine VIRUS And, according to the latest statistics, India's recovery rate is 98.38%. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

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

28

Parents more likely to kidnap than strangers.

Parents are statistically the most common kidnappers. Parental abductions are the most common form of kidnapping, but stranger abductions are what Americans fear most and are far less common, with only 100-150 successful cases reported annually. CRACKED.COM — OSU / Parents

27

Prices end in 99 SALL because our brains are bad at numbers. hoes 59.99 Styles Intellectually we know that $59.99 and $60 are functionally the same, but we subconsciously see a big difference - perhaps because we read from left to right and see the lower number first. So you see $59.99 as in the $50 range rather than essentially $60. GRACKED.COM — Source

26

Canada took in 120,000 Vietnam War refugees. Fleeing political violence following the war's end in 1973, thousands of refugees from South Vietnam arrived in Canada from 1975 to 1982. A number of refugees arrived by Boat to Canada's shores. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

Since 2014, the number of McDonald's restaurants has been shrinking. McCaf McDonald's McDonald's DRIVETHRU M The company had 14,350 restaurants in 2014, and that figure has been falling by 3% per year since. In 2018, for the first time since 2004, there were under 14,000. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

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

23

Jay-Z is crazy about number 4. In fact, he likes the number SO much he created a personal challenge to go vegan for 22 days (2+2=4) a day before his 4

22

DISNEY IS THE WORLD'S NUMBER 2 BUYER OF EXPLOSIVES. NUMBER 1 1S THE U.S. MILITARY. Not to say the two organizations are quite in competition with each

21

BLACK RHINOS WERE NEARLY EXTINCT, BUT THEY'RE COMING BACK. Their numbers went up from 4,845 in 2012 to about 5,630 in 2018 (the most recent figures av — Source: The Guardian

20

The US is home to about 200 million starlings, and it's because of Shakespeare. In 1890, there was a program to bring every bird species from Shakespeare's plays to North America, and that included releasing 60 starlings in Central Park. Eventually, that number grew to 200 million. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Lighting can heat the air five times hotter than the sun.

Lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees. This is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun, which sizzles at a relatively temperate 9,941 degrees fahrenheit. The sun makes up for this measly number by heating up inside to 27 million degrees. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — NWS

18

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

17

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

16

In 1973, France introduced Decimal Time. It simplified time into a 10-hour day, 100 minutes per hour, and 100 seconds per minute. It was suspended 500 days after its introduction. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: FHH Journal

15

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM IN SOME WAYS, THE NUMBERS WE USE TO COUNT WITH ARE UNUSUAL. 3.141592653589793238462643383279502 88419716939937510582097494459230781 64062862089986280348253421170679821 48086513282306647093844609550582231 72535940812848111745028410270193852 ALMOST ALL NUMBERS ARE ACTUALLY TRANSCENDENTAL, MEANING THERE'S A DECIMAL FOLLOWED BY AN INFINITE STRING OF SEEMINGLY RANDOM DIGITS, LIKE PI. — Source

14

A misplaced decimal point made spinach a superfood. In 1870, a German chemist calculated the 8 9 amount of iron found 4 5 in spinach and other 6 vegetables. When he you EXI yon BY LY YONA Exp 2 3 recorded his findings, د he misplaced the YOU XOW XOn decimal point. The amount of iron in spinach is 3.5 mg per 100g, but he wrote down 35 mg. Despite repeated efforts by the scientific community to set the record straight, the myth that spinach is ridiculously high in iron persists to this day. http://it toolbox .om/blogs/infosphere/spinach-how-a-data- CRACKED.COM quality-mistake-created-a-myth-and-a-cartoon-character-10166 — Source

13

Melvil Dewey was kicked out of the American Library Association for being a creep.

The guy that gave us the Dewey Decimal System was a creep. GRAGKED.COM Melvil Dewey, the inven- tor of the Dewey Decimal System, was kicked out of the American Library As- sociation for constant un- welcome advances to- wards women librarians. — American Library Magazine

12

A decimal point doubled the cost of a Spanish submarine. While building their new S-80 sub, engineers ran into an issue: Someone had misplaced a decim — More: 6 Itty-Bitty Screw-Ups That Cost Millions To Fix

11

CRACKED.COM NASA only uses 15 digits of П =3.141592653 7932384626 For the highest accuracy calculations, NASA only needs to use 3.141 59265358979. Even when doing calculations for the circumference of a circle with a radius of 46 billion light years (the entire visible universe) to an accuracy equal to the diameter of the simplest atom, you would only need 39 or 40 decimal places — Source

10

Nestle Hot Cocoa Mix has '99.9% caffeine-free on its packaging. Chocolate Nestle FLAVOR Made with Real Nestle Cocoa 99.9% Caffeine-free o Low Fat NET WT 0.71 OZ (20.2 g) The thing is, that's the percentage of mass and caffeine is a potent substance. To put the number in perspective, consider that a 20 OZ Starbucks coffee has 415 mg (0.014 oz) of caffeine, making it also 99.9% caffeine-free; in fact, most regular coffees are basically 99.9% caffeine-free. In other words, that's just regular chocolate, not decaffeinated. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Smoking: Still a thing.

CRACKED THE SMOKING EPIDEMIC In 2018, the percentage of American adults who smoked cigarettes reached its lowest point ever, at 13.7%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, in 2020, cigarette sales went up for the first time in 20 years. — NY Times

8

All freshwater fish kind of come from duck poop. The first fish in a new pond or pool come from eggs eaten by ducks. 0.2% of the eggs come out of the duck's other end intact -- a really low percentage, but ducks are very abundant, so a swarm of ducks moving to a new pond will leave enough eggs to populate it with fish. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Peanut butter has to BE 90% peanuts If it's a lower percentage, in the United States, it legally has to BE labeled as peanut spread. CRACKED.COM — Source: The Atlantic

6

NORWAY P = I GRACKED.COM Norway leads the world in percentage of electric cars. With tax exemptions on zero emissions cars, sales rose by 25% in 2021 to a record 176,276 cars (that's 65% of car sales), and it's on track to hit 80% in 2022. They also have a deadline to end petrol and diesel powered car sales by 2025. — Source: reuters

5

The Elephant Graph

The famous elephant graph is deployed by professional optimists to demonstrate that global prosperity is lifting up the very poor as well as the very rich. income growth rate (percent) 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 percentiles of the global income distribution But since the graph charts growth as a percentage of current income, it equates the poor gaining a few dollars with the rich gaining millions. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Stats That Are Misleading B.S. (But Technically Correct)

4

What percentage of beef are you okay with?

CRACKED BREAK T AT TH BEL TIL 11AM TACO BELL'S MYSTERY MEAT BY THE NUMBERS. In 2011, a lawsuit claimed that Taco Bell's beef contained only 35% meat and could not call itself beef. Taco Bell spent millions to prove that it's actually 88% beef, so we're left trying to account for the other 12-65%. — NPR / Today

3

A phone contains a greater percentage of gold than gold ore does. BLAINEK pLtr COlad FINE PoS JoDDy One ton of gold-rich ore deposit yields about 1 or 2 grams of gold, but one ton of used phones (with the batteries taken out) yields 300 grams of gold. NOW YOU — Source: BBC

2

There has been the same percentage of left-handed people for thousands of years.

10% of ancient tools uncovered are designed for being left-handed. I'm a lefty CRACKED.COM This indicates that in the last 10,000 years the proportion of the population that is left-handed has re- mained consistent at 10%. — Right Left Right Wrong

1

Individually, Americans use more cocaine than any other country. The percentage of users in America is only a tenth of a percent higher than Brazil, but Americans use 36% of the world's cocaine, compared to Brazil's 18%. CRACKED.COM — Source

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