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Illustration by Arnie Bermudez
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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
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Things you always never wanted to know
The jackrabbit is not a rabbit; it is a hare. A Jerusalem artichoke is not an artichoke; it is a sunflower. Arabic numerals are not Arabic; they were invented in India. India ink (sometimes called "Chinese ink") was not known until recently in either China or India.
The original story of "Alice in Wonderland" was not known as "Alice in Wonderland" at all. It was called "Alice's Adventures Under Ground" and was illustrated by the author himself, Lewis Carroll, whose name was not Lewis Carroll, but Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Dodgson was a mathematics professor at Christ's Church, Oxford, England.
Date-palm trees in Iraq are passed down through generations as part of family legacies. The trees are given individual names, have carefully recorded personal histories and are considered a basic part of family wealth.
In medieval Spain, it was customary to clean the teeth with stale urine. The theory behind this strange practice was that the urine would render the teeth especially bright and keep them firmly fixed in the gums.
Oscar Verhaeghe of Uccle, Belgium, could multiply four-digit numbers by two-digit numbers in 15 seconds without pencil and paper. Verhaeghe could give square roots, cube enormous numbers, and square large sums in less than half a minute. Once, under test conditions, he calculated the square of 888,888,888,888,888 in 40 seconds (the answer is 790,123,426, 790,121,876,543,209,876,544). Except for his mathematical ability, Verhaeghe had the mental capacity of a child.
The ruby, sapphire, and emerald are not specific minerals. A ruby is the red and a sapphire is the blue variety of corundum. An emerald is the green and an aquamarine is the blue variety of beryl.
Assuming that each fold neatly overlaps its opposite side, a dollar bill can be folded only six times ÷ seven if put into a vise. (Try it.)
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