There Kaprekar constant, 6174so called in honor of the Indian mathematician Dattatreya Ramachandra Kaprekar who discovered it, is a mysterious number that always comes back on itself. If we order its figures from the largest to the smallest, and then from the smallest to the largest, we get the numbers 7641 and 1476 which, subtracted from each other, give 6174 ...
It was 1907 and Francis Galton – a British statistical, biologist and anthropologist – was in one cattle fair Where a competition was underway: estimate the weight of an ox. Galton noticed that the average estimate made by hundreds of people was incredibly close to real weight of the animal. Not only that: the collective error was much lower than ...
The largest landfill of all time, Fresh Kills Landfill, in business. Credit: Chester Higgins, Jr., via Wikimedia Commons The mega landfill Fresh Kills Landfill It was the largest ever built in the world (while the largest for electronic waste is the Acra landfill in Ghana): remained operational for over half a century between 1948 and 2001, has stored huge quantities ...
The word “race” He has accompanied us for centuries, yet he continues to be one of the most controversial: has entered everyday life, in official documentsin lawsin political discussionsuntil it becomes a term that might seem natural but it is not. Talk about “human races” It means moving in a slippery field, made of history, prejudices and power: born for ...
Imagine walking barefoot in a tropical lagoon, the water is crystal clear, the sand seems smooth, but under you an animal can be hidden that does not want to be seen: the stonefish (Synanceia Verrucosa), also known as stone fish, Perhaps the most insidious of the fish that populate the seabed of the ado-Pacific and the Southeast Asia. His rocky ...
The candles used on the birthday cake are attested with certainty only from the beginning of the nineteenth centurywhen they were placed on Goethe’s dessert, but the origins of the ritual of candles are older and perhaps date back to Celebrations in honor of the goddess Artemide widespread in Greek civilization. In the ancient world, in fact, fire was often ...
The monoscope For decades a fixed image was broadcast by Italian television (and not only) in the moments when the programs were not on air. If today we are used to a continuous and uninterrupted flow of transmissions, things were once differently. Many inevitably associate it with 60s and 70sbut up to most of the 90s often happened to turn ...
The oven a microwave It is now present in almost all kitchens, it works by emitting electromagnetic waves that make the water molecules contained in food vibrate: it is precisely the transformation of this kinetic energy (movement energy) in thermal energy to heat the food very quickly. Not all containers, however,, they get along with the microwave. For example, metals, ...
Italy and France are connected by one Gallery about 11.6 km long which pierces the Mont Biancothe highest peak of the Alps and all over Europe. Hidden inside the mountain, the structure of the tunnel allows the transit of entrance and exit vehicles from Italy, By means of a single lane road structure by direction. Its travel, in compliance with ...
It would be possible to replace our organs as they damage or age, almost as if we were machines in a workshop? New heart, new liver, new lungs … and so on. The idea, to which Russian President Putin some time ago said he was very interested, sounds fascinating, but also a little disturbing: if it were enough to change ...