Of all the subjects we are forced to study in school, people seem to reserve their bitterest revulsion for maths. But maths isn’t about counting and crunching numbers. It isn’t about arithmetic or memorizing formulas. We did an earlier article on why people hate Maths. This article is about the fun stuff of maths – jokes, riddles, tricks, puzzles, patterns , beauty.
The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple. ~ S. Gudder
Table of Contents
What is Maths?
It’s about problem-solving, deducing truth, and exploring the concepts of change, quantity and structure. It’s about exploring the properties of shapes,patterns, logic, algorithms, programs, and the relationships between all of these things. It’s about finding elegant and beautiful connections that naturally exist both in the real world and in the perfect mathematical one. It’s full of puzzles and mysteries. And it’s—no joke—full of really fun stuff! The astronomer Galileo Galilei observed in 1623 that the entire universe “is written in the language of mathematics“. Math relates to music, art, architecture, business, science, and even philosophy.
One Liners
God is real, unless proclaimed integer.
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Algebraic symbols are used when you do not know what you are talking about.
I do not think — therefore I am not.
Math is like love; a simple idea, but it can get complicated.
Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them, they translate it into their own language, and forthwith it means something entirely different. — Goethe
Teacher: “Who can tell me what 7 times 6 is?”
Student: “It is 42!”
Teacher: “Very good – And who can tell me what 6 times 7 is?”
Same student: “It’s 24!”
The mother of already three is pregnant with her fourth child.
One evening, the eldest daughter says to her dad: “Do you know, daddy, what I’ve found out?”
“No.”
“The new baby will be Chinese!”
“What?!”
“Yes. I’ve read in the paper that statistics shows that every fourth child born nowadays is Chinese…”
Tricks
A simple Trick. Can you tell what is the solution of this trick?
Step1: Multiply the first number of the age by 5. (If <10, ex 5, consider it as 05. If it is >100, ex: 102, then take 10 as the first digit, 2 as the second one.)
Step2: Add 3 to the result.
Step3: Double the answer.
Step4: Add the second digit of the number with the result.
The word MATHEMATICS comes from the Greek máthema which means “science, knowledge, or learning“; mathematikós means “fond of learning“.
The word FRACTION is derived from the Latin ” fractio – to break“.
The word GEOMETRY from Ancient Greek: geo = earth, metria = measure
The word ALGEBRA comes Arabic word al-jabr, literally, restoration
The word CALCULUS comes from Latin means , a small stone used for counting
Largest Numbers in English
Googol: A large number. A “1” followed by one hundred zeros.
Googolplex: The second largest number with a name. A “1” followed by a googol of zeros i.e. 10googol, i.e.
Googolplexian: The worlds largest number with a name. A “1” followed by a googolplex of zeros.
The names “googol” and “googolplex” were both suggested in the 1930s by Milton Sirotta, the nine-year-old nephew of mathematician Dr. Edward Kasner. Search engine name Google, originated from a misspelling of the word “googol“, which was picked to signify that the search engine wants to provide large quantities of information for people.
Patterns
Patterns are all around us! Finding and understanding patterns gives us great power. With patterns we can learn to predict the future, discover new things and better understand the world around us. And playing with patterns is fun. The natural world is loaded with numeric pattern: from the regular 28 days lunar cycle, the annual cycle of 365 and a quarter days to the number of legs on animals. Legs? Yes, humans have 2, cows have 4, bees have 6, spiders have 8. Why even flowers’ petals are not exempt from the power of pattern. Lilies have 3, buttercups have 5, delphiniums have 8, marigolds have 13, asters 21 and daisies 34. It took 800 years to explain why this series of numbers that Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci) identified is rampant in nature, just like the rabbits in the problem he devised. We haven’t even got to the golden ratio, Pascal’s or Omar Khayam’s triangles, multiples and …Some patterns of numbers
A census taker approaches a house and asks the woman who answers the door “How many children do you have, and what are their ages?”Woman: “I have three children, the product of their ages are 36, the sum of their ages are equal to the address of the house next door.”The census taker walks next door, comes back and says “I need more information.”The woman replies “I have to go, my oldest child is sleeping upstairs.”Census taker: “Thank you, I now have everything I need.”What are the ages of each of the three children?AnswerThe reason the census taker could not figure out the children’s ages is because, even with knowing the number on the house next , there were still two possibilities.The only way that the product could be 36 and still leave two possibilities is when the sum equals 13. These possibilities being 9, 2 and 2 and 6, 6 and 1.When the home owner stated that her “oldest” child is sleeping she was giving ths census taker the fact that there is an “oldest”.The children’s ages are therefore 9,2 and 2.For more such puzzles: MathsisFun
Maths and Beauty
What has mathematics got to do with beauty? Actually, a lot. Scientists believe that we perceive proportional bodies to be more healthy. Physical attraction also depends on ratio called Golden Ratio or Phi with value approximately equal to 1.618. Our attraction to another person’s body increases if that body is symmetrical and in proportion. Likewise, if a face is in proportion, we are more likely to notice it and find it beautiful.
Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of the human body emphasised its proportion. The ratio of the following distances is the Golden Ratio:
(foot to navel) : (navel to head)
Similarly, buildings are more attractive if the proportions used follow the Golden Ratio.Ref:Maths of Beauty.
Plants grow new cells in spirals, such as this pattern of seeds in the beautiful sunflower. The spiral happens naturally because each new cell is formed after a turn. But how much of a turn?If you don’t turn at all, you would have a straight line.But that is a very poor design … you want something round that will hold together with no gaps.
Correct answer is 0.618 (or 0.382, which is 1-0.618) based on Golden Ratio (1.61803…) . This arrangement forms an optimal packing of the seeds so that, no matter how large the seed head, they are uniformly packed at any stage, all the seeds being the same size, no crowding in the centre and not too sparse at the edges.
Hope this article showed that there is more to maths than numbers, counting and crunching numbers. Hope you enjoyed it and would look at Maths with a different angle.
Very Interesting presentation on the subject of my interest.. Maths is one of my favorite subjects and has always been so! Really loved reading the fun aspects of it 🙂
hmmmm if maths is looked at through this post & through your eyes it does seem interesting
nice jokes & puzzles there.
i can actually see the effort that has gone into these two posts on maths. and it also shows your love for the subject
why didn’t our teachers make it fun in school? it was always about who got how many marks in the tests & scoring less always killed the joy 🙁
Sujatha you are right..teachers didn’t make it fun in school. Well I liked the subject because I scored so well..
Yes it took effort but seeing the comments it was worth it.
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And the answers are:
Jokes
Very Interesting presentation on the subject of my interest.. Maths is one of my favorite subjects and has always been so! Really loved reading the fun aspects of it 🙂
Thanks Arti for your imput. It was my favorite subject too…
hmmmm if maths is looked at through this post & through your eyes it does seem interesting
nice jokes & puzzles there.
i can actually see the effort that has gone into these two posts on maths. and it also shows your love for the subject
why didn’t our teachers make it fun in school? it was always about who got how many marks in the tests & scoring less always killed the joy 🙁
Sujatha you are right..teachers didn’t make it fun in school. Well I liked the subject because I scored so well..
Yes it took effort but seeing the comments it was worth it.