Friday, August 31, 2012

2

2 = (32+42+52+62+72+82+92) /  (12+22+32+42+52+62+72)

Thursday, August 30, 2012

eleventy-one

In The Fellowship of the Rings, it says "Bilbo was going to be eleventy-one, 111, a rather curious number, and a respectable age for a hobbit".

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

77

Iranian Universities are barring women from 77 different courses.  These include English literature, archeology, nuclear physics, computer science, forestry, mathematics, and hotel management.  This is a result of clerics objecting to the results of women getting educated, including the lowered marriage and birth rates.

For more information:

The Daily Beast

Monday, August 27, 2012

45

The shortest war in history was on this date, August 27, in 1896.  The British Empire defeated Zanzibar in 45 minutes

The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896. With a duration of only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in recorded history. The war broke out after Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini, who had willingly co-operated with the British colonial administration, died on 25 August 1896, and his nephew, Khalid bin Bargash, seized power in what amounted to a coup d’état. The British favoured another candidate, Hamud bin Muhammed, whom they believed would be easier to work with, and delivered an ultimatum ordering Bargash to abdicate. Bargash refused. While Bargash’s troops set to fortifying the palace, the Royal Navy assembled five warships in the harbour in front of the palace. The British also landed parties of Royal Marines to support the “loyalist” regular army of Zanzibar. Despite the Sultan’s last-minute efforts to negotiate for peace via the U.S. representative on the island, the Royal Navy ships opened fire on the palace at 9 am on 27 August 1896 as soon as the ultimatum ran out. With the palace falling down around him and escalating casualties, Bargash beat a hasty retreat to the German consulate where he was granted asylum. The shelling stopped after 45 minutes. The British demanded that the Germans surrender the erstwhile Sultan to them, but he escaped to sea on 2 October 1896. He lived in exile in Dar es Salaam until captured by the British in 1916. He was later allowed to live in Mombasa where he died in 1927. As a final act, Britain demanded payment from the Zanzibar government to pay for the shells fired on the country.


For information of other short wars:  10 shortest wars

Sunday, August 26, 2012

6800

$6,800 is the amount that Michelle Obama spent on a jacket...



... which normally I wouldn't care about.  If she wants to blow that much of her own money on a jacket, that is her business. 

The media loved her in the jacket:

"And[Michelle Obama] put dozens of stuffy royals and heads of state to fashion shame making the queen look dowdy in her bulging aquamarine dress and tired-looking crown — and even showing up Kate Middleton in her belted, fitted satin coat-dress. Make no mistake FLOTUS followers quickly pointed out, the radiant, silk-and-viscose tailored jacket — with the capped sleeves highlighting her famously toned arms and a matching ivory-silk pleated skirt — were made in the U.S.A. and a surefire way to generate patriotic pride is to best a fashionable head-turner like Middleton on her own turf when she’s clad in the blue pastels of wunderkind designer Christopher Kane." said the NY Daily News

“She isn’t just wearing a $6,800 jacket — she’s supporting the commerce of the nation,”said top celebrity fashion stylist Robert Verdi, who plies his trade on Eva Longoria, Hugh Jackman and numerous other A-listers. “It’s not wasteful, it’s inspiring: It’s a New York company — selling a product made in the U.S. at places like Saks — and it helps the tailor and the little dry cleaner on the corner stay in business.”

However, when Ann Romney spent $990 on a shirt...



... the media were upset.

"The very wealthy Mitt and Ann Romney have often been painted as out of touch with average Americans. Ann’s pricey shirt will not help her husband change those perceptions, no matter how many Laundromat photo ops are on the campaign’s daily itinerary. Some Americans might be thinking that the $1,000 spent on one shirt could help them out with a house payment or buy necessities at Walmart. Others are counting exactly how many T-shirts that amount would buy at Target, where first lady Michelle Obama said she often shops." said the Washington Post.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

43

Number of people on line at a grill stand at 1 pm yesterday at the corner of 6th Avenue and 53 Street in Manhattan.  It did smell good.

Friday, August 24, 2012

16.583333333....

Today's relay race from Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast is 199 miles.  Each team consists of 12 runners, so each runner runs 16.5833333333... miles.

My math professor is on team "Numb and Number".


 for more info:   Hood-to-Coast

Thursday, August 23, 2012

96769

My brother's car's current odometer reading is a palendrome.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

69

69 is the largest number whose factorial can be calculated on most pocket calculators.

69! is approximately 1.71 x 10^98.

Most pocket calculators stop at 10^100.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

1.926

If you mix 1 liter of water with 1 liter of alcohol, you will get 1.926 liters of mixture.

(stolen from Archimedes Laboratory)

Monday, August 20, 2012

-108

The current temperature in Vostok Station, Antarctica, is -108°F (-78°C, 195K).


To see current info:  current weather for Vostok, Antarctica

Sunday, August 19, 2012

449

449 is a prime number.

449 is the smallest prime number whose digits are composite perfect squares.

449 is the 87th prime. Note that 42 + 42 + 92 = 82 + 72 = 113.


449 is the sum of five consecutive prime numbers: 449 = 79 + 83 + 89 + 97 + 101.

(copied from Mathematical Association of America who copied it from Prime Curios)

Saturday, August 18, 2012

73

Sheldon Cooper feels that 73 is the best number:

"73 is the 21st prime number. Its mirror 37 is the 12th prime number and its mirror 21 is the product of multiplying (hang on to your hats) 7 and 3"
"In binary 73 is a palindrome 1001001 which backwards is 1001001 exactly the same."
Sheldon doesn't mention that the 73th day of a non-leap year is March 14, and this is Pi Day and the birthday of Albert Einstein. 
Or that 73 is the alphanumeric value of the word NUMBER: 14 + 21 + 13 + 2 + 5 + 18 = 73.

Or that 73 is the smallest multi-digit number which is one less than twice its reverse


(Amy)

Friday, August 17, 2012

170

170 = 2 x 5 x 17.

170 is 10101010 in base 2 (binary). It is 2222 in base 4.

170 has two representations as a sum of two squares: 170 = 12 + 132 = 72 + 112.

170 is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of the squares of two distinct primes, where each of these primes is the square of a prime added to another prime: 170 = (22 + 3)2 + (32 + 2)2.

170 is the start of a record-breaking run of consecutive integers (170 to176) with an odd number of prime factors.

Each internal angle of a regular 36-sided polygon is 170 degrees.


(stolen from NumberADay who took it from Prime Curios!)

Thursday, August 16, 2012

99950

99950, the highest zip code in the United States, is for Ketchikan, Alaska.

 see link:  city of Ketchikan

(Amy)

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

1999

1999 is the largest prime number to be in the title of a television series.  Space: 1999 was a British television series that ran from 1975 to 1977.  The premise of the show was that people were dumping their garbage on the moon, and on September 13, 1999 some radiation hit the garbage and caused an explosion.  This knocked the moon out of its orbit, sending it shooting through space.  But there were people living in a space station on the moon, who were now on the moon-turned-spaceship, looking for a new place to live.

For more information:  Space 1999

(Amy)

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

314,159,265

Today (August 14, 2012) The United States population hit 314,159,265.  This is noteworthy because it is
people.  So if you made a circle with a radius that was ten thousand people long, then the entire population of the US would just fit to make the circle.
see article: