If you have 6 oranges in one hand and 4 apples in the other, what do you have?

Really big hands.

Symbols

Mathematical symbols weren't invented until the 16th century, and before that all equations were written out in words.

Prehistoric

Markings found on animal bones have shown that humans have been doing Maths since around 30 000 BC.

Symbols

The symbol for division (÷) is called an obelus.

A farmer had 198 sheep, but when he rounded them up he had 200.

Time

A millisecond is a thousandth of a second.

The number of milliseconds in a day is

5⁵ × 4⁴ × 3³ × 2² × 1¹

(86 400 000).

Roman Numerals

Roman numerals only use 7 different letters, which form the entire number system:

I = 1

V = 5

X = 10

L = 50

C = 100

D = 500

M = 1000

Numbers

The digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 that we use commonly in English counting, are actually called ‘Arabic numbers’ and were developed in Maghreb during the 10^th century.

VAT

VAT is a tax added onto items that are bought, except things that are deemed to be essential, such as food.

It stands for 'Value Added Tax'.