Names for Numbers

You probably know that a 'dozen' means 12, but did you know that a 'gross' is 144 (12 × 12), and a 'score' is 20?

Record Breaking

The most decimal places of pi memorised to date is 70 000, by Rajveer Meena in 2015.

It took nearly 10 hours for him to recite them all!

I'm not afraid of heights, but I'm terrified of widths...

Textbook

The first printed maths textbook is the 'Treviso Arithmetic' from 1478.

Darts

In darts, the aim is to score 501.

The least number of darts needed to do this is 9.

Why did the police bring the number 13 in for questioning?

It was the prime suspect.

Strength

The triangle is generally considered to be the strongest shape for use in architecture.

Rubik's Cube

A Rubik's Cube is a plastic cube puzzle covered with multicoloured squares, which you have to twist and turn so that all 9 squares on each face are of the same colour.

Any Rubik's Cube, no matter how much it is jumbled up, can be solved in 20 moves!

Mortgage

A mortgage is the name given to a loan used to buy a house. The name means 'dead pledge', but it's a lot less morbid than it sounds! It refers to the fact that the deal ends (or 'dies') when the debt is paid off or payment fails.