Math can get political these days and was in the US news in mid-late April as 42 out of 132 K-12 Math textbooks were rejected by the state of Florida. Publishers had the opportunity to adjust the content and as of 4/29, Florida's instructional website stated "Publishers are aligning their instructional materials to state standards and removing woke content allowing the department to add 17 more books to the state adoption list over the past 14 days."
How long is a second? One Mississippi? The second was defined in 1967 by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures -- "the international organization established by the 1875 Metre Convention, through which Member States act together on matters related to measurement science and measurement standards." The second is still currently defined as "the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the unperturbed ground state of the 133 Cesium atom." and has been dependent on microwave atomic clocks.
According to the New York Times, next month, metrologists with the B.I.P.M. will have a final list of criteria that must be met to set the new definition of the second -- this list will most likely be fulfilled by 2026, and formally approved by 2030.
Making Numbers Count by Stanford professor Chip Heath aims to make numbers more accessible by answering the question "How can we translate millions and billions and milliseconds and nanometers into things we can comprehend and use?" One of the best examples of the difference between million and billion is time: a million seconds is "only" 11 days. In contrast, my scientist brother had a billion-second party the summer between his 31st and 32nd birthdays. The book suggests using User-Friendly and Relatable numbers such as the US national debt per citizen is $91,000 (rather than the total of over $30 trillion!).
A mother told her daughter "I was thrice as old as you two years ago. In 14 years, I will be twice as old as you." What is the current age of the mother and daughter?
For the answer to April's Brain Puzzler click here
