What are some cool math and number facts that would blow the mind of a seven year old? [more inside]
posted by bondcliff on Dec 1, 2009 - 67 answers

What are your benchmarks for estimating/comprehending quantities? I'm terrible with magnitudes; if someone tells me that they weigh 85kg, or that they come from a city of 2 million people, this doesn't create a mental picture for me at all; they might as well be speaking another language. After a lifetime of being resigned to this, I've decided I'm going to familiarise myself with a list of benchmark quantities: my height, the height of my tallest friend, population of my city, etc. Help me compile a list of quantities I should be familiar with, and tips for learning to come to grips with quantities! [more inside]
posted by surenoproblem on Oct 31, 2009 - 26 answers

How do I get a controlled distribution of random numbers to fairly determine a start position. [more inside]
posted by monkeystronghold on Oct 25, 2009 - 21 answers

In a talk (at TED) by Brian Greene on string theory he says that there are "there appear to be about 20 numbers that really describe our universe..." He lists a few in his talk, but what are the rest of of those numbers? [more inside]
posted by bigmusic on Oct 23, 2009 - 7 answers

I love numbers! Especially numbers that track things. What services could I offer that involve fairly simple numbers? (Note: no significant statistics background; NOT advanced math.) [more inside]
posted by kristi on Oct 16, 2009 - 7 answers

Why are the teen numbers (13-19) named differently than the rest of the numbers, and what's up with eleven and twelve? [more inside]
posted by Arbac on Sep 5, 2009 - 33 answers

Two iPhones, a 2G and a 3G, on a family plan. Adding a third, a 3GS. Can I just swap the SIM cards to get the phone numbers onto the devices I want them on, or does AT&T need to get involved? [more inside]
posted by pzarquon on Jun 11, 2009 - 13 answers

I have an xls file I got from a survey I created on Google docs. Now I want to make it pretty without copy-pasting every bloody cell into an Indesign document… [more inside]
posted by monocultured on May 17, 2009 - 7 answers

How might a person go about cultivating "number sense"? I mean something different from abstract reasoning. I'm asking how one might develop an intuition for physical concepts such as numbers, lengths, and sizes. Examples might include knowing how many people went to your school, how many yards away is a given building, how large is your apartment, how much does the average American earn, etc. These things could be measured or found out through research, but how might a person develop the ability to give reasonable estimates?
posted by Busoni on Apr 15, 2009 - 22 answers

What city in Texas could be represented by the number 93711195? Or the string GECAAAABA? [more inside]
posted by gleuschk on Apr 7, 2009 - 52 answers

Examples of suspiciously round numbers that have, in all probability, been fudged up or down? Extra points for cases where those numbers can be safely discarded in favour of a different, more realistic figure. [more inside]
posted by onshi on Mar 20, 2009 - 29 answers

Is there a name for the design trend (I think associated with brutalism) in the 60s and 70s where buildings had enormous, sans-serif italic numbers on the walls indicating address, floor or room number? These were often shades of brown, orange or yellow. I have seen numbers so large that the tops and bottoms are clipped by the floor and ceiling.
posted by setanor on Mar 12, 2009 - 5 answers

C++ and the rand() function. Please explain why this piece of code works the way it does: cout << rand() % 20 << endl; [more inside]
posted by Ziggy Zaga on Feb 17, 2009 - 13 answers

How are motorcycle (or otherwise) race numbers determined? [more inside]
posted by furnace.heart on Jan 21, 2009 - 5 answers

When you consider marriage, do you have a time frame? Not for the ceremony, mind you, duration of the bond itself. [more inside]
posted by emhutchinson on Jan 10, 2009 - 62 answers

How do you say 2666 in Spanish? [more inside]
posted by Bizurke on Jan 5, 2009 - 12 answers

I need to generate the complete series of 5 digit numbers. The catch? Can only use even digits (0,2,4,6,8). I'd like to accomplish this in Excel, if possible.
posted by Rock Steady on Dec 12, 2008 - 28 answers

How can I make Excel tell me when a number is out of sequence? [more inside]
posted by Beautiful Downtown Burbank on Nov 20, 2008 - 6 answers

Why do many American and Canadian towns list population numbers as you enter them, e.g. Welcome to Anytown, Population: 3,414 [more inside]
posted by Happy Dave on Oct 1, 2008 - 19 answers

My nephews have some numerically coincidental birthdays coming up, anyone have any clever ideas that we can use for the occasion? [more inside]
posted by Kimothy on Aug 25, 2008 - 6 answers

My phone book was recently lost and I'm looking for numbers to populate my new one. I'm getting family and friends but now I'm looking for generally useful phone numbers. Think along the lines of your favorite carry-out place, a cab service, or any number you have that isn't connected to a person you personally know.
posted by woolylambkin on Jul 14, 2008 - 22 answers

Does anyone have experience with self-treatment as an adult with dyscalculia? I think I may have it, and that I've had it all my life. Whether or not that's so, are there any tricks to "rewiring" yourself? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Apr 22, 2008 - 7 answers

I have a show tomorrow night, I know nothing about sports, and I need to mod a hoodie. Help with funny/edgy names and numbers. [more inside]
posted by sourwookie on Mar 7, 2008 - 24 answers

What is that building on Water Street at John street in downtown NYC (you can see it on street view on googlemaps)? What are those numbers for? Is it a clock or counter or something?
posted by activitystory on Mar 4, 2008 - 7 answers

Can you help me figure out Microsoft Word 2007's settings to meet some very precise requirements for page number formatting? [more inside]
posted by .kobayashi. on Feb 24, 2008 - 2 answers

How to manage an unwieldy mailing list (for physical mailing) on a Mac. [more inside]
posted by LongDrive on Dec 12, 2007 - 3 answers

My son asked me how many trees there are in the world. I know there are a finite number, yet I also know that it is not practical to count them. Same with grains of sand. When the set cannot be measured because it goes on forever we say the set is infinite. Is there a single word to express the concept of a countable, finite number too large to actually count? [more inside]
posted by JohnnyGunn on Nov 30, 2007 - 42 answers

I'm looking for a "lite" contact manager for my PC? [more inside]
posted by jacobean on Nov 14, 2007 - 7 answers

Finding the magnitude of a complex fraction. Is it simply |num|/|denom|? Or is there more to it? [more inside]
posted by toomanyplugs on Nov 4, 2007 - 4 answers

Why are house numbers in America so long? [more inside]
posted by dydecker on Sep 22, 2007 - 42 answers

I'm working my way through the Bible. At the moment, I'm towards the end of Numbers. The past few books have been very heavy with detailed instructions on the various blood rituals God requires of his people — which animals to sacrifice, what manner to do it in, and lots of blood-splashing on the sides of the tent. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Aug 29, 2007 - 31 answers

Are there any free online tools for generating radar (aka radial, spider, star) graphs/charts? [more inside]
posted by cortex on Jul 27, 2007 - 1 answer

Why is it hard for me to perform simple mental calculations with certain numbers? [more inside]
posted by lalex on Jun 5, 2007 - 19 answers

Is there any way to call United Kingdom 0800 (freephone) numbers from overseas? [more inside]
posted by spiff101 on Jun 4, 2007 - 6 answers

How would I locate the U.S. "market" numbers on people could consider themselves sports enthusiasts - i.e., "how many swimmers are there"? How many backpackers? How many triatheletes? How many kayakers? I know someone has done this research. I'm looking for Adventure sports in particular.
posted by wavejumper on May 24, 2007 - 5 answers

Imagine a cube-shaped building, with ten cube-shaped rooms along each side (10 rooms long, 10 high & 10 deep). Each cubular room has 4 walls, 1 ceiling and 1 floor. Each of the 6 interior surfaces in all 1000 cubular rooms is decorated with a different piece of art. The rooms can be moved around the building, as if it were an enormous Rubik's cube, but they can also be spun on their axes, so all 6 walls of all 1000 cubes is capable of touching all the others (if the cube is so arranged). How many combinations of art within the 'Cube Gallery' are possible? If you can run me through the workings of the maths I would be extra grateful. Also, what technical words/phrases/language are useful/interesting in expressing this concept? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Apr 24, 2007 - 25 answers

How do I improve my memory for numbers? [more inside]
posted by otherwordlyglow on Jan 19, 2007 - 16 answers

Anyone have predictions (with citations) offered on how many troops would be necessary in Iraq? I've heard that generals said up to 300,000 in the run-up, but I can't seem to find sources for these. [more inside]
posted by klangklangston on Jan 16, 2007 - 15 answers

I just logged into a university library account by typing a 10 digit number. I have no clue what the number actually is, but I know exactly what to punch in. Similarly, I don't really know my pin code, I only know the shape it makes when I type it in, and the same goes for photocopy codes and frequently dialled phone numbers. What's this called? In music it's referred to as "finger memory", but this seems to be music specific. My guess was "kinetic memory", but that seems to be something else entirely.
posted by easternblot on Dec 1, 2006 - 15 answers

1 is more common than 2? Help me find a recent article that talks about "data" having a tendency to start with 1. [more inside]
posted by wogbat on Nov 3, 2006 - 7 answers

I'm trying to find an image of note numbers with the corresponding notes on a staff. [more inside]
posted by scazza on Oct 12, 2006 - 15 answers

What kind of jobs exist for people who think about numbers and money from a consumer perspective, in a weirdly logical and obsessive way? [more inside]
posted by croutonsupafreak on Sep 11, 2006 - 18 answers

I have a question about finding the longest sequence in a set of numbers. [more inside]
posted by maxwelton on Sep 2, 2006 - 13 answers

Can you help me with my innumeracy? [more inside]
posted by horseblind on Jul 23, 2006 - 16 answers

What experiments have been carried out where animals perform better than us at particular cognitive tasks? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on May 9, 2006 - 13 answers

Where can I find California court records by case number or name search? I'm especially interested in Orange County and Contra Costa counties. I've searched online but can't seem to find a state based online site to look all this up.
posted by skEwb on Apr 16, 2006 - 6 answers

How can I have my computer analyze a small dataset to find patterns? [more inside]
posted by rolypolyman on Mar 14, 2006 - 27 answers

Where does the practice of putting an arabic number in paranthesis after the written number originate? [more inside]
posted by sohcahtoa on Mar 14, 2006 - 11 answers

Several, couple, a few: occasionally, these words are used to indicate specific quantities of items (3, 2, and 4-5, respectively). Tell me about the etymology of these uses, and help me come up with more words (in English or other languages) that have this interesting specific/nonspecific duality.
posted by breath on Jan 1, 2006 - 41 answers

I'm looking for songs with counting or numbers (used more than once) in the lyrics. [more inside]
posted by jetskiaccidents on Jul 31, 2005 - 108 answers