Math gets a bad rap for being boring and difficult.
But, the truth is, math is one of the most beautiful subjects in the world.
Even though you probably don’t realize it, math is at work all the time in your everyday life.
That bridge you drove over to get to work? That’s there because of math! That delicious pasta recipe you cooked the other night? Someone used math to put that together! Or, how about that smartphone you’re scrolling on right now? You wouldn’t be scrolling through it if it weren’t for some serious math.
If you’re still not convinced about how cool math is, check out this guide to learn the top mind-boggling facts about math.
Base 60
Have you ever wondered why 60 seconds are in a minute, but why we seem to count everything else according to 10s?
Well, there’s a reason for this.
In ancient Babylonia, they did things with a base of 60 instead of a base of 10. This is why there are 60 seconds in one minute and why a circle is 360 degrees.
Prime Numbers
For those who don’t know (or were sleeping during 6th-grade math), prime numbers are numbers that are indivisible.
In other words, they can’t be divided evenly by any number other than one or their own number.
What’s interesting about prime numbers is that there’s no pattern dictating which numbers will be prime numbers or how far apart they’ll be in order.
That is, until mathematician Stanislaw Ulam came along and discovered while doodling in his notebook that when you write integers in a spiral formation, prime numbers always fall along diagonal lines. And, not only that but prime numbers seem to fall along some diagonal lines more than others.
And, this occurs regardless of what number you start your spiral at. While there are conjectures out there as to why this pattern exists, there’s no definite answer!
The Birth of Calculus
As you probably already know, we owe a lot of thanks to the Romans and Greeks in regard to what we know today about math.
Calculus, for example, was invented by a Greek mathematician named Pythagoreans. Pythagoreans would use small rocks to represent numbers when working on math equations.
This is where we get the word calculus from, which means pebble in Greek. And yes, we also owe the discovery of the Pythagorean theorem to this mathematician.
9 is a Magic Number
While those in the math world would argue that all numbers have some magical power, the number 9 holds a little extra magic.
This is because if you were to multiply any single number with 9, and then add all the digits of the resulting number, your answer will always be 9.
If you want to learn more about the magic of other numbers, you can check out this site to see options for an online math tutor.
Facts About Math: Are You Excited to Learn More?
As you can see, there are a lot of interesting facts about math out there.
If you’d like to learn more interesting facts, be sure to check back in with our blog.
