On July 1, 1858, the Linnean Society of London heard a joint presentation by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace on the theory of evolution by natural selection.
In his annual report the following May, society president Thomas Bell wrote, “The year which has passed has not, indeed, been marked by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionize, so to speak, the department of science on which they bear.”
In 1962, botanist Reid Moran published a note in the journal Madroño recounting his collection of a bush rue on a mountaintop in Baja California.
The note’s title was “Cneoridium dumosum (Nuttall) Hooker f. Collected March 26, 1960, at an Elevation of About 1450 Meters on Cerro Quemazón, 15 Miles South of Bahía de Los Angeles, Baja California, México, Apparently for a Southeastward Range Extension of Some 140 Miles.”
The text read, “I got it there then.”
This was followed by a 28-line acknowledgment section in which Moran thanked the person who had reviewed the text, his college professors, and the person who had mailed the manuscript.
A problem from the 2003 Moscow Mathematical Olympiad:
A store has three floors, which are connected only by an elevator. At night the store is empty, and during the workday:
(1) Of the customers who enter the elevator on the second floor, half go to the first floor and half to the third floor.
(2) The number of customers who get out the elevator on the third floor is less than 1/3 the total number of customers who get out of the elevator.
Which is greater, the number of customers who go from the first floor to the second on a given workday, or the number who go from the first floor to the third?
viduity
n. the state of being a widow
Patented by Zoya Hajianpour in 2004: a “roller for applying sunscreen to one’s own back.”
That’s not as sad as this.
Paul R. McClenon of Washington D.C. contributed this problem to the January-February 1964 issue of Recreational Mathematics Magazine:
The poor patient read the prescription which would save his life. ‘Mix carefully a one-pint drink, made of scotch whisky and water, mixed one to five (1/6 scotch, 5/6 water). Drink it quickly and go to bed.’
However, the patient finds only the following items at hand:
A one-quart bottle, about half full of scotch whisky.
An eight-ounce glass.
An unlimited supply of water from his faucet.
A sink with a drain.
No other containers or measuring devices.He can pour from either container to the other, without spilling a drop, and can fill either to the brim without loss. How should he mix the prescription? Will he figure it out in time? Will he be saved? Did a doctor or bartender write this prescription?
The magazine went out of business before it could publish the solution. I’ll leave it to you.
05/17/2013 UPDATE: There seem to be a number of ways to accomplish this. Here’s one:
We need a 16-ounce dose that’s 1/6 whiskey, so the final mixture must contain 2.666 ounces of whiskey.
That leaves us with 16 ounces in the jug, 1/6 of which is whiskey and the rest water, as directed.
Thanks to everyone who wrote in.
In 1954, archaeologists excavating an eighth-century Viking settlement on Helgö Island in Sweden turned up a 10-centimeter statuette of the Buddha.
It’s thought to have originated in northwestern India around 600. How it made its way to Sweden is unknown.
There’s a museum on the moon. As Apollo 12 prepared to depart in 1969, New York sculptor Forrest Myers commissioned drawings from six prominent artists and had them engraved on a ceramic wafer, then arranged for a Grumman engineer to smuggle it onto the lunar lander.
Two days before launch he received a telegram confirming that the engineer had been successful. If he was, then the tiny museum is still up there, bearing drawings by Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg, Forrest Myers, and Andy Warhol. Perhaps they’ll attract some patrons.
An invitation sent by Madame de Lignerole to Augustus Hare, Aug. 1, 1851:
Will you be so very kind as to allow me to take the liberty of entreating you to have the kindness to confer the favor upon me of giving me the happiness of your company on Friday?
Ambrose Bierce defined politeness as “the most acceptable hypocrisy.”
