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Oct 31, 2022 at 11:24am
#3530085
And of course after #23 comes #24 on our planet. Congratulate MsPhy   on winning a spot in the OctoPrep Challenge!And now for some very challenging facts about #24: Who remembers Avogadro’s constant for the number of atoms contained in one mole of a substance from high school Chemistry? No, me neither. But, a great way to approximate it is using 24 factorial — or 24! in mathematical notation. The factorial function (or exclamation mark) tells you to multiply all of the numbers less than 24 together. So, 24! is equal to 24 x 23 x 22 x 21 x 20 x 19 x … x 2 x 1, also known as an incredibly large number. It’s about 3% larger than Avogadro’s constant, but certainly easier than remembering 6.02214076 x 10²³. Twenty-four also represents the number of carats in pure gold, the number of letters in the Greek alphabet (ancient and modern) and the number of points on a backgammon board. Mathematically, 24 is the smallest number with exactly 8 numbers that divide it — can you name them? And, it’s equal to exactly 4 factorial: 4! = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24. Last but not least, where would we be without the 24 hour day — or to be precise 24 hours plus or minus a few milliseconds to be completely exact… Day length Yesterday 24 hours -0.46 ms Today 24 hours -0.39 ms Tomorrow 24 hours -0.35 ms Shortest 2019 24 hours -0.95 ms Longest 2019 24 hours +1.67 ms Last Year Average 24 hours +0.69 ms Author: The Funbers series is written and presented by Dr Tom Crawford and is broadcast weekly on BBC radio. For more maths fun check out Tom’s website tomrocksmaths.com and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube @tomrocksmaths.   CHEERING QUEEN    |
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