Research Into Numbers

Fact/Fiction:

- Thinking about the direction to go in, wanting to avoid something too serious as that isn't the design I prefer to go for.
- After a discussion with Helena and Rosie I thought about developing the project around the theme of superstitions, people tend to act on superstitions (avoiding 3 grates, not walking under ladders, not putting new shoes on the table etc.) but not knowing where the reasons for this come from.

Reasons for superstitions:
-Opening Umbrellas Indoors- 
In "Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things" (Harper, 1989), the scientist and author Charles Panati wrote: "In eighteenth-century London, when metal-spoked waterproof umbrellas began to become a common rainy-day sight, their stiff, clumsy spring mechanism made them veritable hazards to open indoors. A rigidly spoked umbrella, opening suddenly in a small room, could seriously injure an adult or a child, or shatter a frangible object. Even a minor accident could provoke unpleasant words or a minor quarrel, themselves strokes of bad luck in a family or among friends. Thus, the superstition arose as a deterrent to opening an umbrella indoors."

-Walking Under Ladders- This superstition really does originate 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. A ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle, and Egyptians regarded this shape as sacred (as exhibited, for example, by their pyramids). To them, triangles represented the trinity of the gods, and to pass through a triangle was to desecrate them.

-Broken Mirror Giving 7 Years Bad Luck-In ancient Greece, it was common for people to consult "mirror seers," who told their fortunes by analysing their reflections. As the historian Milton Goldsmith explained in his book "Signs, Omens and Superstitions" (1918), "divination was performed by means of water and a looking glass. This was called catoptromancy. The mirror was dipped into the water and a sick person was asked to look into the glass. If his image appeared distorted, he was likely to die; if clear, he would live."

-Spilling Salt then Trowing a Pinch Over Your Shoulder- 
Spilling salt has been considered unlucky for thousands of years. Around 3,500 B.C., the ancient Sumerians first took to nullifying the bad luck of spilled salt by throwing a pinch of it over their left shoulders. This ritual spread to the Egyptians, the Assyrians and later, the Greeks. The superstition ultimately reflects how much people prized (and still prize) salt as a seasoning for food. 

-Saying Bless You After Sneezing- 
 Though incantations of good luck have accompanied sneezes across disparate cultures for thousands of years (all largely tied to the belief that sneezes expelled evil spirits), our particular custom began in the sixth century A.D. by explicit order of Pope Gregory the Great. A terrible pestilence was spreading through Italy at the time. The first symptom was severe, chronic sneezing, and this was often quickly followed by death. Pope Gregory urged the healthy to pray for the sick, and ordered that light-hearted responses to sneezes such as "May you enjoy good health" be replaced by the more urgent "God bless you!"

Fact/Fiction Briefing:
During the briefing I spoke to numerous photographers, it became apparent that I wasn't as invested int he project to collaborate with someone. The theme appeared to fall flat when I was discussing it with photographers as I and them were unsure on how to approach the topic.

Needing to rethink the project.

The Significance of Numbers:

When looking through the briefs the significance of numbers brief was one that peaked my interest the most, it required rethinking the way we approach numbers in everyday life. 

Elements of the brief:

• Use this brief to change the way we think about numbers and fire your audience’s imagination to see the world with fresh eyes.
• Create an engaging experience for your target audience – make them fall in love with mathematics.
• Shine a new light on how numbers intertwine with our lives and give narratives to our experiences.
• Your submission should challenge and provoke, whilst establishing a clear understanding of how numbers give meaning to the world around us.

Deliverables:

• The content, format, media and range of your project outcomes should be determined by their suitability for your chosen target audience.

Research Into Numbers:

A brief history of numerical systems - Alessandra King:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZH0YnFpjwU

Notes on the video:
- 10 symbols to write any number imaginable
- Counted using body parts or tally marks in cavemen times.
- Through development people developed new ways of representing numbers.
- Roman numerals incorporated placement
- All were difficult to write big numbers with.
- Positional notation-reuses same symbols assigning them different values within the same sequence.
- In the 8th century in India the decimal (base 10) system was improvised, which spread into europe.
- Key development in this system was the symbol for 0, people used ot leave a bank space making it difficult to differentiate between numbers.
- Why use based 10? most likely answer is 10 fingers.
- Different bases (eg 60 or 12) have different benefits, can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8. Making it better for representing common fractions.
- Both appear in regular life, degrees, time, a dozen etc.
- Base 2 is used all the time in the digital system for binary.

Everyday uses for numbers:

1. Calling a member of a family or a friend using mobile phone.

2. Calculating your daily budget for your food, transportation, and other expenses.

3. Cooking, or anything that involves the idea of proportion and percentage.

5. Using elevators to go places or floors in the building.

6. Looking at the price of discounted items when shopping.

7. Looking for the number of people who liked your post on social media.

8. Looking through TV channels.

9. Telling time you spent on work or school.

10. Checking the temperature outside.

The Imperial System:

https://whydoesitsuck.com/why-does-the-imperial-system-suck/
Let’s have a look and find out who those hipsters are that still think they’re too cool to use a concise, practical and international system of measurement that just makes sense and isn’t based on the width of an average man’s thumb or the size of a barleycorn.



base 10:
1 centimeter = 10 millimeters
1 decimeter = 10 centimeters
1 meter = 10 decimeters
1 dekameter = 10 meters
1 hectometer = 10 decameters
1 kilometer - 10 hectometers

base 12:
1 foot = 12 inches
1 yard = 3 feet
1 chain = 22 yards
1 furlong = 10 chains
1 mile = 8 furlongs
1 league = 3 miles
etc. (it goes on for ages)

Number hub: the imperial system explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7x-RGfd0Yk

Number Hub: Paper sizes explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHeo62B0d0E

- A meter is 1/40million th of a fraction of the circumference of the earth.
- The decimal system has a basis, whereas inches all stems from the size of a barley corn.
- A34 is smaller than a human cell.
- A-47 is bigger than the earth (with double A0 as A-1)

Thoughts So Far:

• People use numbers everyday in a lot of aspects, I should focus on either one aspect of the everyday, or one aspect within numbers as to not get too confused.
• The idea of 'base systems' is interesting. It is a fundamental part of the number system but is often overlooked.
• The absurdity of the imperial (base 12) measurement system and it's origin is something fascinating. It is used in everyday life, but people don't know how it came about.
• Who do I want my audience to be? Maths is heavily related to school aged children, should I try and reach a different audience? Would it be good to get young people rethinking maths so they learn about it sooner?