A Clock for Math Whizzes

Posted by Alex in Gadget, Pictures on January 7, 2008 at 7:33 pm


Now this is a clock for math whizzes! The clock sports math equations involving the number 9 and is made by the Triple Nine Society, a high-IQ organization:

Each number is expressed as a calculation involving three instances of the number 9.

For example, 5 o’clock is the square root of nine (3), factorial (3×2x1 = 6), minus 9/9 (6-1 = 5).

The trickiest time is 7 o’clock, whose calculation works out to 6.99999…, with an infinite number of nines. Wikipedia assures us that 0.99999… really does equal 1, so no worries that the clock is cheating there.

LinkThanks bactac!


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5 comments to "A Clock for Math Whizzes"

  1. brandie
    January 7th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    Love it. Obviously you don't need to know the math behind it to figure out what time it is, but it's a cute exercise to work it all out.

  2. Sid Morrison
    January 8th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    Math "whiz"? Yeah, figuring out the square root of 9 is pretty challenging.

    I'd say it's geeky and suitable for a math teacher's classroom, but not quite "whiz level". It's probably beyond about the top 5% of U.S. government school teenagers, though. Cute.

  3. Allen
    January 8th, 2008 at 6:34 pm

    Why do you need Wikipedia to tell you that .999(9) is equal to 1? The proof is three lines long:

    Let S = 0.999(9)
    Then 10*S = 9.999(9)
    10*S - S = 9 --> 9S = 9 --> S = 1

    Tada.

  4. ted
    January 8th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

    Some of those are just needlessly complicated. The square root of nine plus nine minus nine? Come on. That's not clean at all.

  5. Antique clocks
    February 10th, 2008 at 11:10 pm

    It's pretty amazing! Nice clock for math whizzes. I like it!


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