#898 What is the golden ratio?
What is the golden ratio? It is 1.618. The golden ratio appears in nature, in art, in buildings, and in logos, along with countless other places. It is called the…
What is the golden ratio? It is 1.618. The golden ratio appears in nature, in art, in buildings, and in logos, along with countless other places. It is called the…
What is the Fields Medal? It is a four-yearly prize given to mathematicians under the age of 40. It is the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize. It is named…
On the Shoulders of Giants #1 Euclid was an ancient Greek mathematician. He is most famous for his book “The Elements”. He probably lived in the City of Alexandria in…
Who invented the slide rule? Willian Oughtred in 1622. I think, first, I need to look at what a slide rule is because not many people under 60 will have…
Why are there twelve months in a year? Because it is the closest match to the number of times the moon orbits the Earth in a year. Before there were…
Where did Arabic numerals come from? They evolved from a writing system created in India in the 3rd century BC. The first evidence of prehistoric humans using numbers comes from…
I learned this today. We have 24 hours in a day because of Hipparchus. We have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour because of Claudius…
I learned this today. The mathematical symbols + plus, – minus, x multiply, ÷ divide, and = equal are not as old as we think. Mathematics itself goes back a…