Two students’ lives were put at risk when they were accidentally given a dose of caffeine that was 100 times greater than it should have been. “… the calculation had been done on a mobile phone, the decimal point being put in the wrong place. ” Getting the numbers right can be a matter of life and death.
https://itabn.tumblr.com/post/157611208872/misplaced-decimal-point-endangers-lives
The Greek Theatre in the Sicilian town of Taormina could, so they say, accommodate 5000 theatre-goers. Could this be true? Let’s do some rough and ready calculations …
http://www.andrewcaelliott.com/explorations/2016/11/13/a-trip-to-the-theatre
This thought-provoking blog post accurately describes one of the most important reasons for mathematical (and other) education: for the habits of thought and not always only for the content.
Numeracy, and a numerate approach to understanding the world, becomes a habit also. Keep asking: “is that a big number?”
https://medium.com/@jeremyjkun/habits-of-highly-mathematical-people-b719df12d15e#.njlr8pyp5
We like the attitude at cockeyed.com.
Take a bunch of everyday stuff (not just clothes) and weigh them. Why? Just to see how much they weigh! (and along the way maybe help internalise a sense of relative weights).
http://www.cockeyed.com/science/weight/weight_menu.html
How many tennis balls does it take to fill St Paul’s?