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Curious Facts

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  • A recent survey of 1,000 Germans found that one-third thought that 40% meant either a quarter, or every 40th person.

    [Source: The Guardian , Never Ending Story, Thursday June 19, 2003.]

  • The ancient Chinese believed that each number had its own sexuality, with even being feminine and odd number being masculine. Of the odd numbers, prime numbers were thought to be the most masculine.

    [Source: The Music of Primes, Prof Marcus du Sautoy.]

  • Euclid proved that there are an infinite number of prime numbers.

    [Click HERE for proof.]

  • The largest known prime number has more than four million digits. However, no one has yet found a way to predict where the next prime number might be found.

    [Source: The Music of Primes, Prof Marcus du Sautoy.]

  • An American businessman has offered a prize of $1 million to the first person to solve the problem of why there do not appear to be any patterns in the location of prime numbers; the Riemann Hypothesis.

    [Source: The Music of Primes, Prof Marcus du Sautoy.]

  • Albert Einstein was 26 when he published his Special Theory of Relativity.
  • A single Tree in Amazonian Peru may contain more than 40 species of ants, equal to the number on the whole of the British Isles.

    [Source: The Observer, 13 July 2003.]

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