Event Odds Source Being crushed to death by a vending machine 1 in 112,000,000 The Book of Odds by Amram Shapiro Going blind after laser eye surgery 1 in 5,000,000 London Vision Clinic Dying from a local meteorite, asteroid, or comet impact 1 in 1,600,000 National Geographic Being struck by lightning in a given… Read More »
Take a two-digit base-10 number where the digits are represented by ab. This number is equal to 10a + b and the sum of its digits are a + b. The difference between the number and the sum is 9a, which is divisible by three. So a + b is divisible by three, if and only… Read More »
The only 3-digit answer is \(544_9 = 445_{10}\). However, there are answers in other bases: \(211_3 = 112_4\) \(322_5 = 223_6\) \(433_7 = 334_8\) \(544_9 = 445_{10}\) Are you seeing a pattern here? Does the pattern extended to bases higher than 10? Does \(655_{10} = 556_{11}\)? Does \(766_{11} = 667_{12}\)? Cheating a little bit by… Read More »
When looking through some of my old papers I found at my father’s house after he died, I found some old Fortran code for converting Gergorian calendar dates to and from Julian dates. I haven’t used Fortran since the 1970s, so the code looked a little strange. Some examples of Julian dates: Julian Date Equivalent… Read More »
This article is still being worked on, but I wanted to share it before it was completed. If you want to be notified when it is updated leave a comment below. When I was a child I lived in San Bernardino, California from 1966 to 1969. I can still remember my home telephone number: TUrner… Read More »
So the question was asked on this page, “Are there any four-digit prime numbers?” Stop here and go to the other page if you want to read the first part about palindromic prime numbers and try to answer the question before reading the answer below. You’re still here, so here’s the answer. No. There are… Read More »
A palindrome /ˈpælɪndroʊm/ is a word, phrase, number, or any other sequence of units which reads the same forwards as it does backwards. Examples of palindromes are the words sees, radar, madam, and aibohphobia (fear of palindromes); the sentences, “Rise to vote sir”, “Too hot to hoot”, “A war at Tarawa!”, and “Noel sees Leon”;… Read More »
Miscellaneous 83 is the atomic number of bismuth (symbol Bi). In Judaism, when someone reaches 83 years old they may celebrate a second bar mitzvah. The Torah says that a normal lifespan is 70 years, so an 83-year-old person can be considered 13 years old in a second lifetime. 83 is the highest UHF channel… Read More »