Japan

The Beauty of a Circle

Niall O'Donnell 12 Comments

While I was running this evening, and my mind was wandering, I thought about the phrase a nice round number. I wondered to myself why we call them round numbers. And then almost straight away I answered my own question and said that it’s obviously because of the zero. Which is round. And round numbers always end in a zero.

Well, that’s that. Sometimes the answer is just that simple, and I’m even able to figure it out myself. Not that that stopped me thinking about numbers, and roundness of course.

Continue reading →

A Date with Destiny

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

-You there, boy! What date is it today!?

-Today!? Why it’s 05/08/16!!

-Wait… so is it August or May?

Why do Americans write the date differently from the rest of the world? Not that I’m really complaining, but, well, it can be annoyingly confusing at times, especially in cases like above where the day of the month is the 12th or lower. Of course I’m just used to the European format, but I do also think it’s more logical, moving from the smallest unit to the largest. Continue reading →