Fascinating Math Facts

June 10, 2010

Interview with Ian Stewart, author of the book Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures

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Mike Carruthers:
Mathematics can be a fascinating subject. For instance where did the equal sign come from?

Ian Stewart:
Somebody must have invented it, it was a Welch doctor called Robert Recorde – he was also very interested in math.
 

Ian Stewart, author of the book Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures …

In 1557 he wrote a book and in it he introduced the symbol and he says, “I will settle as I do often in work use for a pair of parallels, lines of one length, because no 2 things can be more equal.” It’s very hard to think of anything that’s more equal than 2 parallel lines.

You’ve heard the old theory of probability that if you give a monkey a typewriter eventually he will bang out the complete works of Shakespeare.

I wouldn’t hang around waiting; you’d have to wait far longer than the lifetime of the universe. Nonetheless in a sort of a mathematical sense it’s true. People have actually done experiments with real monkeys (this doesn’t work very well) basically the monkey just sat there and pressed the same key over and over and over again and then he got fed up and trashed the keyboard and that was the end of the experiment.

Then there’s the theory if a piece of toast falls off the table it will always land butter side down. Why?

As it falls it starts to tilt and you can calculate the speed at which it tilts and how far it falls so when you put all that together you find it’s much more likely to fall butter side down. It only works with normal human sized kitchen tables. 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here