June 4, 2026
First, there was PHOTOSHOP!
Marie Claire Magazine, claiming to support real women and real body sizes, ran a survey in 2010 to see, which body size 6,8, 10, 12, 14 or 16, was preferred by the Australian public. There she is below, 59% of readers voted for Size 12.
Size 12
See the Mathspig Post: How they photoshop supermodels’ legs here.
In the same issue, the model below appeared in an ad. Her legs have been photoshopped. How does mathspig know? Do the math.
Model with 89% longer legs.
Now websites are advertising AI models.
How fake will they be? They don’t have to create freakishly long-legged AI models. Ai could generate fashion models of any size … or with 3-legs and 2 heads. Though the 3-legged model may not sell many brand-name jeans. But here are some examples Mathspig found and compared, first to our Size 12 model, then to our Size 6 model.
So AI can produce a range of AI models from realistic to ridiculous. But your eye sees the ridiculous pics as OK, leaving you with unrealistic expectations of body proportions.
Of course, some AI images can be hilarious.
See also: How GEOMETRY gave Margot Robbie her long Barbie legs
Posted in %, Body Image Maths, Decimals | Tagged %, AI, Body image, crazy, distortion, fake, fashion model, girls, image, Marie Claire, Maths, photoshop, pics, Size 6, unreal | Leave a Comment »
May 1, 2026
Australians are the biggest (or worst) gamblers in the world per capita…………………………………………………..
Do the maths.
Why?
Do you believe in luck? Gamblers do. They believe in lucky numbers, lucky breaks, lucky colours and even a lucky rabbit’s foot (It wasn’t so lucky for the rabbit.) But more than anything else gamblers believe in patterns.
The Coin Flip
If we flip a coin an infinite number of times Heads:Tails ratio will be 50:50. But if you think of infinity as a long, long ribbon with a HTTHTHHTTT pattern then random flips means any pattern is possible. 10 H in a row is possible… or 20 H. It’s just that we suddenly see meaning in this pattern. This is the Gambler’s Fallacy. We see 10 H in a row and we say ‘Aha! The next flip has to be Tails.’ But it doesn’t have to be Tails. The next flip – as with all flips – has an equal 50:50 chance of being Heads or Tails. That’s all. But we are surprised when we see an extended streak of, say, Heads. What has happened in the past does not effect THE NEXT FLIP!!!!!
The Rouette Wheel
Roulette Wheel has 36 numbers and an equal number of Red and Black slots. ‘The most famous example of such a phenomenon occurred in a Monte Carlo Casino in the summer of 1913 when a roulette wheel landed on black 26 times in a row.’ The Decisive Moment How the Brain Makes Up Its own Mind Jonah Lehrer (Text Publishing 2009)
What do you think the gamblers did that night???
After a few Blacks in a row they started to think it was Reds turn and kept backing Red.
The Casino kept raking in the francs. It was a very good night for the house.
Posted in probability, statistics, statspig, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged $, a year, Aussies, big, coin flip, gamblers, how much, losers, lost, online, per capita, per person, Roulette Wheel, The World | 2 Comments »
April 9, 2026
With the World Fuel Crisis in play, this post from 2014 seems more relevant than ever.
ENERGY:
Posted in algebra, Basic Bio-fuel Calcs, Decimals, Middle School, Senior School | Tagged 60 kph, bio-fuel, calories, car, diesel, driving, efficiency, energy, green, kcal, kilojoules, kj, mini, walking | Leave a Comment »
April 9, 2026
ENERGY:
Posted in algebra, Arithmetic, Basic Bio-fuel Calcs, units speed, Units Volume | Tagged bio-fuel, exercise, fat, how far, human fat, lose, loss, walk, walk off, Weight | Leave a Comment »
April 9, 2026
With the World Fuel Crisis in play, this post from 2014 seems more relevant than ever.
Note: All ‘imaginary’ human fat will be sourced from Liposuction facilities.
Of course, in heavy traffic you are burning up the bio-fuel/fat getting nowhere.
Fuel Consumption (F) can plummet, even for the Mini, from 3.4 kg/ 100 km to 6.8 kg/100 km to 8.8 kg/100km. You may as well get out of the car and walk!!
ENERGY:
Posted in algebra, Basic Bio-fuel Calcs, direct proportion, Middle School, Ratio, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged Bio-diesel, bio-fuel, car, Crisis, diesel, drive, fat, Gas, green, how far, human, mini, Petrol, travel, World | Leave a Comment »
March 19, 2026
This April Fool’s Math Test has been soooo popular, it deserves a reboot.
Tell your year 8 or 9 students that this test is designed to test their ability to concentrate and use logic while doing a challenging test under pressure.
Tell students to circle or note the ‘correct’ answer. Then wait to see how long it takes them to think you have totally lost the plot! You can make copies of the test using the PDF links below or project it onto a Smartboard, then put the answers up later.
Mathspig April Fools Math Test 1 USA
Mathspig April Fools Math Test 2 USA
Mathspig April Fools Math Test ANSWER USA
Posted in Funny ha^2 Maths, Middle School, middle school, Silly Maths Jokes, The Teacher Goes Bananas, Year 7 mathspig | Tagged 2026, April Fool, class, crazy, funny, joke, Middle school, prank, teacher, test, trick, Try, Year 8 | Leave a Comment »
March 19, 2026
This April Fool’s Maths Test has been soooo popular, it deserves a reboot.
Tell your year 8 or 9 students this test is designed to test their ability to concentrate and use logic while doing a challenging test under pressure.
Tell students to circle or note the ‘correct’ answer. Then wait to see how long it takes them to think you have totally lost the plot! You can make copies of the test using the PDF links below or project it onto a Smartboard. You can put the answers up later.
Mathspig April Fools Maths Test 1
Mathspig April Fools Maths Test 2
Mathspig April Fools Maths Test ANSWER
Posted in Funny ha^2 Maths, Middle School, Silly Maths Jokes, The Teacher Goes Bananas, Year 7 mathspig | Tagged April Fool, class, crazy, funny, joke, Math %, Middle school, prank, teacher, test, trick, Try, Year 8 | Leave a Comment »
February 27, 2026
Consider the example of the coin rolling around a coin of the same size. Intuitively we think …’OK. Same circumference, so the coin will rotate once as it rolls around a same-size coin. But this doesn’t happen. It rotates twice.
TWICE!
This observation is SOOOOOOOO counterintuitive we have to know why?…
Why?
The answer is interesting. The relevant point in the ROLLING COIN PARADOX is the centre of the rolling coin. The rolling coin rotates about that point. And that centre (the red dot in the gif below) moves through a circle twice the circumference of the stationary coin. It is much easier to understand when you see it. (Below)
Posted in Circle C, Middle School, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged challenge, circle, circumference, coin, crazy, exercise, Middle school, paradox, project, quick, radius, rolling, trick | Leave a Comment »
February 15, 2026
Air resistance is a significant factor used by ski jumpers to increase their jump distance.
Ski jumpers crouch going down the ramp to reduce their X-section area and therefore their air resistence. Once they leave the ramp, ski jumpers try to increase their X-section area to increase their air resistence like Ski Divers to slow their vertical fall. But they have to land safely, so they keep their skis at a minimum angle.
Austrian Stefan Kraft in the Men’s Olympic Ski Jump at Milano Cortina 2026
Abby Hughes, USA, practicing in a wind tunnel.
Abby Hughes, USA, in the air
Here are the X-section areas for Abby Hughes:
Mathspig calculated the X-section area by the old-fashioned method of counting squares and rounding off the final count. Mathspig sized the two pics of Abby Hughes so that her head was the same size in both pictures.
Here is the formula for Air Resistance of Drag:
D = ½CApv2
Where C is the drag coefficient or constant, which depends on the shape and spin of an object. It is found by testing the object in a wind tunnel.
A is the X-section Area,
p is the density of the air and
v the velocity of the object.
More here.
As Abby Hughes has tripled her X-section area in the air, she will have tripled the vertical drag during her jump. This will slow her descent.
Gold in the Men’s Ski Jump at the 2026 Winter Olympics goes to:
Posted in algebra, Area, Winter Olympics Maths, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged 2026, air resistance, area, calculations, Domen Prevc, drag, gold, Japan, Large Hill, Middle school, Nikaido Ren, Olympics, Ski Jump, Slovenian, Winter, X-section | Leave a Comment »
February 8, 2026
Posted in %, algebra, Arithmetic, death by chocolate, Decimals, Fast Food Maths, graphs, Middle School, units weight | Tagged block, calculate, cats, chocolate, death, dogs, dose, fatal, human, kill, lethal, percentage, theobromine, Valentine's Day, warning | Leave a Comment »
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