Monday 28 February 2011

Repdigit

In recreational mathematics , a repdigit is a natural number composed of repeated instances of the same digit, most often in the decimal numeral system .
Examples are 11 , 222 , 4444, 77777, and 999999.
All repdigits are palindromic numbers and are multiples of repunits .
One of the most famous repdigits is 666 , the number of the beast .
The word repdigit is a portmanteau word, formed from repeated digit .
From http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Repdigit

Friday 25 February 2011

The world's' largest tyre and nail

Allen Park is home to the Uniroyal Tire, the world's largest tire. The tire, moved from the 1964 New York World's Fair to Allen Park in 1966, is 80 feet (24 m) tall and weighs 12 tons. The tire is located off Interstate 94. This 12-ton, 80-foot (24 m)-tall behemoth was built to withstand hurricane-force winds, and served as a ferris wheel (and a huge advertisement for Uniroyal) at the 1964–65 New York World's Fair. Twenty-four gondolas circled the tire where the treads are today, carrying nearly two million people.

In 1998, Uniroyal stabbed the tire with the world's largest nail. The nail was 11 feet (3.4 m) long and 250 pounds. This was done to promote their puncture-resistant Tiger Paw Nailgard tire. The big tire withstood the assault and the nail was eventually removed and given to Allen Park, which then put it up for sale on eBay in 2003 to raise money for a local historical society. The city hoped that someone would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the nail, the final price paid by local businessman Ralph Roberts was $3,000 (Roberts lends out the nail for local events).

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Park,_Michigan

Monday 21 February 2011

The Roller Coaster DataBase

The rcdb is a comprehensive, searchable database with information and statistics on over 2000 roller coasters throughout the world.


See http://www.rcdb.com/

Friday 18 February 2011

The longest running western TV series ever

Bonanza -  which ran from 1959 - 1973 and lasted 18 seasons it is the second longest running western TV series ever

First place is held by Gunsmoke which ran for 20 seasons

In the UK Bonanza is the better known of the two.

from http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/2010/08/bonanza-complete-collection-part-work.html

Sunday 13 February 2011

Hard Hat History

Hard hats can be found as helmets throughout history.
Soldiers have adapted helmets for head protection from the beginning of military record keeping.
The helmets developed in WWI were made out of metal and widely used by all soldiers.
After the war, these helmets were adapted for worker safety on construction sties and in manufacturing settings.
The industrial hard hats were initially made from metal, then they evolved to fiberglass.
Hardened reinforced plastic hard hats are the most common types of hard hats used today.

From http://www.ehow.com/about_5062944_hard-hat-requirements.html

Thursday 10 February 2011

The 100 Greatest Mathematicians of All Time

The 100 greatest mathematicians of all time, born before 1930, and ranked in approximate order of "greatness."

To qualify, the mathematician's work must have breadth , depth , and historical importance .
     1. Isaac Newton
     2. Carl F. Gauss
     3. Archimedes
     4. Leonhard Euler
     5. Euclid
     6. Bernhard Riemann
     7. Henri PoincarĂ©
     8. David Hilbert
     9. Joseph-Louis Lagrange
     10. Gottfried W. Leibniz

See full list at http://fabpedigree.com/james/mathmen.htm