Thawing the winter chill of ignorance using the hot-water bottle of knowledge. Also, hot chocolate.
This week, more Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, so more maths curiosities. Also, I’ve been listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear. More on that book to come. On with it:
- Algebra comes from the old Arabic word “al-jabr”, meaning “the reunion of broken parts” or, gloriously, “bone-setting”. It’s a grizzly (and therefore memorable) description of the process.
- The 50p piece (and the subsequent 20p piece) is always the same distance from top to bottom. This lets it work with coin slots, which are expecting a circular coin. Strange to think now, but the shape was controversial when it was first announced.
- The term Gambler’s Ruin describes the fact that, eventually, every gambler hits zero. At that point, the games end. Here’s a fun experiment: go to a casino with a bunch of people. Halfway through the night most will be up; come midnight, they’ll all be drowning their sorrows at the bar. (When I say ‘fun’, I mean … you know, ‘miserable’.)
- When it comes to habits, the cue — not the result — is what forms a craving. (An atomic insight from an atomic book. There are many more.)
- The word Goulash comes from the Hungarian Gulyas, which effectively means “cowboy”. In other words, it was a meat dish prepared by herdsmen. What makes Goulash Goulash? From what I can tell, Paprika.