Math Trivia

Math trivia can be fun, even if you do not like math. There are quite a few interesting facts about math that you probably never realized. For example, did you know that the plus and minus sign that we use so much in math has been around since 1489 AD? It has been recorded that Robert Recorde used the first equal sign in England in 1557. By 1600, a mathematician named Thomas Harriot was using the symbols for greater than and less than. What about that raised dot we use for multiplication? It has been around since 1660, but the X has been used for the multiplication symbol even longer. People began using the X to symbolize multiplication around 1620. It took the division symbol a little longer to be invented, but the first record of it show’s up in a book titled “Tuetsche Algebra” by Rahn, written in 1659.

Are you hungry for some more math trivia? Did you know what you call the inverse function of the exponential function? It is the logarithmic function. Do you know the radium of a unit circle? The answer is 1 and one. If geometry means earth measurement, what does trigonometry mean? It means the triangle measurement. The word trigon is another word for triangle.

Would you like to know some math trivia about the great mathematicians? Do you know about whom the movie “Beautiful Mind” was written? The movie starred Russell Crowe and he portrayed mathematician John Nash. John won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economic Study for the work he did on game theory and the Leroy P. Steele Prize (awarded by the American Mathematical Society) in 1999. Did you know that Charles Babbage is often referred to as the Grandfather of Modern Computing for his work on a machine to do complex mathematical problems? Therefore, you have Charles to blame for all your computing problems!