Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

by Matt Parker

Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles.

Imagine travelling halfway around the world only to be reminded of what you wore as a teenager.

In the Apothecaries system of weight units, a pound can be split into 12 ounces, which each consist of 8 drams. A dram is then 3 scruples, each made from 20 grains. I hope that made sense. A grain is one 5,760th of a pound. But not a normal pound: this is a Troy pound. Which is different to a normal pound. And people wonder why the metric system was invented …

I’ve reviewed dense code I wrote years before, to find the only comment is ‘Good luck, future Matt.’