Math Week Fun Fact #2 – A Jiffy is a Real Thing

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’ll be there in a jiffy?” It’s not a figure of speech. A jiffy is a real unit of time – 1/100th of a second to be precise. The earliest technical usage was in the late 19th century by Gilbert Newton...

Math Week Fun Fact #1 – The Truth About Zero

The number zero does not have its own Roman numeral, but the word nulla (the Latin word meaning “none”) was used by medieval scholars in lieu of 0. Dionysius Exiguus was known to use nulla alongside Roman numerals in 525 AD. Dividing by zero can also get...