Questions tagged [mathematics]
Mathematics is the science of numbers and shapes. Mathematics may also be considered a formal language to describe physics.
8
votes
1answer
600 views
Is the use of X for unknown quantities taken from the Arabic word “shay”?
In this TED Talk, the speaker says that the use of X for unknown quantities was the result of Spanish people taking the Arabic word shay (meaning "thing"), which was used by Arabs to denote unknown ...
3
votes
1answer
788 views
Does Heads Up Texas Hold'em have more possible hands than atoms in the universe?
In the Vice (HBO) clip AI Poker Bots Are Beating The World's Best Players, it is claimed (at 2:00), that Texas Hold'em has "more possible hands than atoms in the universe".
..this competition ...
3
votes
1answer
586 views
Would a hypothetical introduction of 2 swimming pools per second of water result in 6 inches of sea level rise this century?
A recent CBS News article, Climate Diaries: The hottest climate science in the world's coldest place quotes Joe MacGregor, the chief scientist of NASA's Operation IceBridge mission:
"Presently, the ...
4
votes
2answers
856 views
Was Aryabhatta the first to invent place value system and zero?
I was shocked when I read on a blog that Aryabahatta, an Indian guy born in 476 AD discovered zero.
Surely people knew about zero before that.
But his greatest contribution has to be ZERO, for ...
7
votes
2answers
790 views
Was there a person made the quote about poetry that Poincaré responded to?
It is claimed that Henri Poincaré, a well-known mathematician, said this:
Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.
It is also claimed that that quote was in response to ...
9
votes
1answer
4k views
Did René Descartes develop the Cartesian coordinate system by watching a fly on the ceiling?
René Descartes was a French man who lived in the 1600s. When he was a child, he was often sick, so the teachers at his boarding school let him stay in bed until noon. He went on staying in bed until ...
16
votes
1answer
1k views
Are Asian women better at maths when they think they're competing against European men?
In QI Series L, Espisode 9, Stephen Fry says (source):
If there was a maths test between men and women it will be more likely that the men will do better because women are constantly told that ...
101
votes
5answers
18k views
Can you predict a number that is “randomly” chosen by a person better than chance?
(https://xkcd.com/628/)
If you hover your mouse over the comic for a few second a small tool tip box says:
You can do a lot better than 1% if you start keeping track of the patterns in what ...
10
votes
1answer
634 views
Is the difference between men and women' estimates of their number of sexual partners caused because men estimate rather than count?
In this Tedx talk about sexy mathematics, Dr Clio Cresswell says that there is an inconsistency between womens' and mens' reports of the number of sexual partners they have had.
Now, men report, on ...
3
votes
0answers
300 views
Are left-handed people better at mathematics?
During a math exam, I was told: "You are left-handed, you should become a mathematician."
I searched online and, sure enough, there are some web-sites claiming that left-handed people tend to be ...
37
votes
4answers
6k views
Did Augustine of Hippo warn Christians to beware mathematicians?
On the first page of Mathematics for the Nonmathematician, mathematician Morris Kline quotes Augustine of Hippo as saying:
The good Christian should beware the mathematician and all those who
...
11
votes
1answer
1k views
Did 800 people estimate the weight of an ox within 1% in 1906?
According to Wikipedia,
At a 1906 country fair in Plymouth, 800 people participated in a contest to estimate the weight of a slaughtered and dressed ox. Statistician Francis Galton observed that ...
2
votes
0answers
144 views
Pedometers / fitness trackers and setting stride length from your height - how accurate? [closed]
Looking at a couple of pedometer instruction leaflets, from different manufacturers, and spotted that they both suggest you can approximate your stride length from your height via the following ...
26
votes
1answer
5k views
Did A&W customers think 1/3 pound burger patties weigh less than 1/4 pound ones?
This Facebook post by 9gag.com makes the claim that customers of A&W thought that A&W's 1/3 pound burgers weighed less than McDonald's 1/4 pound burgers, and preferred to buy the McDonald's ...
34
votes
2answers
11k views
Did Manahel Thabet develop a groundbreaking formula to measure distance in space without the use of light?
I stumbled upon the Wikipedia page of Manahel Thabet recently. Here are some extracts from the Wikipedia page.
"At the age of 25, she earned her first PhD in Financial Engineering magna cum laude, ...
7
votes
1answer
929 views
Is being a professional logician associated with serious mental health issues?
In Indiscrete Thoughts, Gian-Carlo Rota claims that:
It cannot be a complete coincidence that several outstanding logicians of the twentieth century found shelter in asylums at some point in their ...
2
votes
0answers
396 views
Does the 'B' in 'Benoit B. Mandelbrot' stand for 'Benoit B. Mandelbrot'? [closed]
Decorated mathematician Benoit B. Mandelbrot, who first coined the term fractals, allegedly gave himself the middle initial B, representing again his full name.
Did he in fact ever legally adopt ...
30
votes
1answer
4k views
Have you shared (one water molecule of) your glass of water with a dinosaur?
I saw on the web:
La probabilité que vous buviez un verre d'eau qui contient une molécule d'eau qui est également passée à travers un dinosaure est de quasiment 100%.
This translates to:
The ...
4
votes
0answers
264 views
Was Napoleon right that “there cannot be a great nation without great mathematics”? [closed]
I am teaching mathematics. And I want to collect as many evidences as I can to let my students know that mathematics is very important.
Accidentally I got a quote from Napoleon as follows.
...
3
votes
0answers
115 views
Summer Mathematics Workbooks for Elementary and Middle School
There is a wide variety of summer mathematics workbooks available for students in elementary and middle school (see here). With summer coming up, these books seem to be available everywhere. Thus my ...
16
votes
1answer
1k views
Was Shakuntala Devi able to perform complex computations far faster than the best living human calculators?
I heard about Shakuntala Devi for the first time today, an Indian Savant who allegedly performed such feats as finding the 23rd root of a 201 digit number in 50 seconds, unaided.
There seems to be ...
8
votes
1answer
449 views
Has knowledge in mathematics in teenagers decreased through time?
I have been told that the level of knowledge in mathematics is much lower today than twenty or fifty years ago. Is it true?
I'm looking for statistics that present the level of knowledge in ...
25
votes
1answer
2k views
Is there no Nobel Prize for Mathematics because of an act of infidelity?
The Berkeley Daily Planet reports one rumour I heard:
The one Nobel Prize you won’t hear announced is for Mathematics―because, in contrast to Chemistry, Physics, and Literature, there is no ...
1
vote
1answer
840 views
Is it possible for Armavir to see ballistic missile over Mediterranean (how high was it)? [closed]
Some time ago there were several statements about missile launch detection over the Midterranean using russian Station Armavir:
http://rbth.ru/science_and_tech/2013/09/09/...
1
vote
0answers
72 views
Is golden ratio the most aesthetically pleasing ratio? [duplicate]
I have read several claims in all kinds of literature (both scientific, less scientific and downwards anti-scientific) about golden ratio and its "aesthetics".
However, all the "proofs" I have seen ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Is it possible to generate all photos ever taken by random sequencing of bits? [closed]
All JPGS, pngs etc are basically just sequences of bits. Is it possible to generate these by making a program that generates random sequences of bits?
For example say that the sequence 100010111 is ...
4
votes
2answers
826 views
Can a body be dissolved by a few liters or gallons of Hydrofluoric acid?
In the "Cat's in the Bag..." episode of Season 1 of "Breaking Bad," characters are shown with 4 gallon-jugs of Hydrofluoric Acid that they use to dissolve 2 adult corpses. Chemistry is a major plot ...
9
votes
0answers
462 views
Is it possible to solve problems without active thinking?
I am a mathematics major and I constantly hear people (including my professors) saying that when you are not actively thinking about a given problem and playing tennis for instance your subconscious ...
32
votes
2answers
6k views
Did the Ancient Egyptians use twenty-sided dice?
Ancient d20 die emerges from the ashes of time
Many centuries before Dungeons & Dragons was even a glimmer in the eye of Gary Gygax, ancient Egyptians were rolling a d20 die.
Metropolitan ...
11
votes
1answer
1k views
Did only a handful of people in Europe know how to do division before the 13th century?
Nicholas Nassem Taleb's latest book (Antifragile) continues to provide fascinating unreferenced claims.
In the middle of an argument that much of the important knowledge in the world is practical, ...
6
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0answers
1k views
Did Abraham de Moivre Predict His Own Death?
According to the website I was perusing, found here, it stated that a mathematician named Abraham de Moivre, predicted the date of his own death (using some nonsensical method of when he had slept for ...
25
votes
2answers
2k views
Do higher mathematical abilities inversely correlate with good communication skills?
There is a persistent stereotype that geeks (let's formally define that as people a couple of standard deviations better than average in math, computers or other related abilities) as a whole have ...
7
votes
5answers
2k views
Is poker more a game of skill than chance?
I just read a NY Times article which claims that a US Judge ruled that poker is a game of skill and not one of chance.
In a ruling that goes to the heart of what it means to play poker, Judge Jack ...
10
votes
1answer
4k views
Did Jason Padgett become a math genius after getting hit on the head?
There have been some news reports about a college dropout, Jason Padgett, becoming a math genius after getting hit on the head. Could this be true or how much of this could be true?
16
votes
1answer
3k views
Can Bruce Bueno de Mesquita predict the future with mathematics?
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is called the "New Nostradamus". According to his claims he is able to predict (and has predicted) big economic events such as the 2009 economic crisis. Supposedly he has a ...
9
votes
0answers
240 views
Does counting with fingers diminish the ability to work with numbers in the future for children?
There is a belief that says children who count with the aid of their fingers will be prone to having problems in math in the later years to come.
Is this belief true?
18
votes
1answer
2k views
Do Imperial units make United States children worse at maths?
It is claimed on Cracked.com:
There's also some evidence that our jalopy measurement system [imperial, ndr] is part of what's making U.S. students bad at math. In Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, he ...
22
votes
2answers
2k views
Do number systems in native languages affect math performance?
This blog post said that Asians are good at math because Asian languages have less-confusing number systems:
So if it’s not the schools, what accounts for Asians succeeding in math across different ...
12
votes
0answers
823 views
Did ninjas use Pythagoras' theorem to determine the depth of moats?
Ninjas are alleged to have determined the depth of moats by taking a reed that's attached to the bottom of the moat, and measuring the height of the reed above water, and how far forward they had to ...
19
votes
4answers
27k views
Is Mecca at a special place on the earth's surface, dictated by the Golden Mean?
Mecca considered by Muslims to be the holiest city of Islam.
This video about the Mecca makes the following claims:
Mecca is at a special point on the Earth's surface in the sense that its ...
0
votes
0answers
275 views
Is kabbah the center of the earth [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Question about the Kabbah and the center of the earth
In the following video it is claimed that Kabbah is the center of the earth. What is the scientific proof of this claim. ...
2
votes
1answer
841 views
Did Grothendieck reinvent the Lebesgue integral?
I have heard multiple times the story that while being a first year undergraduate student, mathematician Alexander Grothendieck rediscovered the Lebesgue integration, which was not so known at this ...
25
votes
1answer
1k views
If children use calculators in primary school, is their learning impacted?
Others are against using calculator in lower level math teaching, saying that it makes children not to learn their basic facts, prevents students from discovering and understanding underlying ...
16
votes
2answers
1k views
Can you measure the area of a shape with a ruler and a bent coathanger?
This youtube video video from How Round is Your Circle? claims you can estimate area with a tool created from a bent coat-hanger.
I am a little skeptical about the claim which is why I am posting ...
11
votes
5answers
11k views
Are there more 40-moves chess games than atoms in the universe?
I read this tweet recently:
"There are more possible games of
chess lasting 40 moves than there are
atoms in the entire universe.
Intriguing to know."
I find this highly doubtful.
Could ...
22
votes
1answer
1k views
Was the mathematical genius of Gauss discovered at school?
It is often said that the genius of Carl Friedrich Gauss was first discovered when his teacher told the students to calculate the sum of all integers from 1 to 100 to keep them occupied and young ...
