Every even number is the sum of two primes.
Is that true? No one knows. Originally proposed in 1742, it’s been tested as far as 1018, but the jury’s still out.
Science & Math
Live and Let Die
James Bond never really explains why he likes his martinis “shaken, not stirred,” so in 1999 the University of Western Ontario’s biochemistry department decided to find out.
They discovered that a shaken gin martini has stronger antioxidant properties than a stirred one — which would help Bond avoid cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cataracts.
In their writeup for the British Medical Journal, they conclude, “007’s profound state of health may be due, at least in part, to compliant bartenders.”
See also Silly Old Bear.
A Self-Descriptive Number
In the number 6210001000:
- The digit 0 occurs 6 times
- The digit 1 occurs 2 times
- The digit 2 occurs 1 time
- The digit 3 occurs 0 times
- The digit 4 occurs 0 times
- The digit 5 occurs 0 times
- The digit 6 occurs 1 time
- The digit 7 occurs 0 times
- The digit 8 occurs 0 times
- The digit 9 occurs 0 times
See also The Quick Brown Fox …
Math Notes
115132219018763992565095597973971522401 = 139 + 139 + 539 + 139 + 339 + 239 + 239 + 139 + 939 + 039 + 139 + 839 + 739 + 639 + 339 + 939 + 939 + 239 + 539 + 639 + 539 + 039 + 939 + 539 + 539 + 939 + 739 + 939 + 739 + 339 + 939 + 739 + 139 + 539 + 239 + 239 + 439 + 039 + 139
One-Sided Issue
The international symbol for recycling depicts a Möbius strip.
Do Animals Have Emotions?
In 1984, a pet kitten was given to Koko, the Stanford University gorilla who communicates through sign language.
She cared for it as a baby gorilla until December of that year, when the cat escaped from her cage and was run down by a car.
When her trainers told Koko what had happened, she gave the signs for two words.
They were “cry” and “sad.”
Ahem
The statement “no statements are true unless they can be proven scientifically” cannot be proven scientifically.
Not So Fast
31
331
3331
33331
333331
3333331
33333331
… are all prime, but 333333331 = 17 × 19607843.
Proof That 4 Equals 3
a + b = c
4a – 3a + 4b – 3b = 4c – 3c
4a + 4b – 4c = 3a + 3b – 3c
4(a + b – c) = 3(a + b – c)
4 = 3
Homework
It’s been known since 1876 that 267-1 isn’t prime, but for decades no one knew what the factors were.
Then, at a meeting in 1903, mathematician Frank Nelson Cole gave an hourlong “lecture” in which he didn’t say a word. On one chalkboard he expanded the value of 267-1:
147,573,952,589,676,412,927
On another he wrote:
193,707,721 × 761,838,257,287
Then he multiplied those values by hand. The two boards matched. He had found the factors. Cole returned to his seat amid a standing ovation.
He later admitted that finding the factors had taken “three years of Sundays.”