Maths, but not as you know it…
12 days of Christmas, 12 inches in a foot, 12 disciples of Jesus, 12 pennies in a shilling, 12 months of the year… it’s fair to say we do like the number 12. But why exactly do we choose to divide up the year into 12 months? And why are there 12 hours on a clock-face? Find out in the latest edition of Funbers!
You can listen to all of the Funbers episodes from the ongoing series with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Radio Oxford here.
A double-dose of double-digits with the number 11! It has quite the infamous history with the good – the Armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the bad – September 11th and the attack on the Twin Towers, and the ugly – conspiracy theories including the so-called ‘fake’ moon landing of Apollo 11, making it an interesting number to say the least…
You can listen to all of the Funbers episodes from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Radio Oxford here.
We’ve finally reached double figures in the form of the number 10! The reason that ten is the first number with two digits is precisely because we count in base 10. Computers count in base two (0 and 1’s) and 7-tentacled aliens probably count in base seven…
You can listen to all of the Funbers episodes from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Radio Oxford here.
The number of legs on a spider, tentacles on an octopus and planets in our solar system… Eight is also a big deal in Asia – listen below to find out why!
You can listen to all of the Funbers episodes from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire here.
From the number of seas sailed by pirates, to the number of days in the week named after ancient Gods, seven is a popular number. It also happens to be the maximum number of circular items that can be bundled together securely. Now there’s something you don’t hear every day…
You can listen to all of the Funbers episodes from the series with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire here.
Two times pi is such an important number in maths that it deserves its very own edition of Funbers… featuring angles, trigonometry and pie jokes.
You can listen to all of the Funbers episodes from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire here.
The number of strings on a classical guitar, the number of points on a Star of David and the number of legs on an insect – which make up 80% of the world’s species! Six is also a perfect number: have a listen and see if you can work out the next three…
You can listen to all of the Funbers episodes from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Radio Oxford here.
