Posts Tagged ‘percentage’

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Valentine’s Day Warning: Chocolate can kill. But how much?

February 8, 2026

With Valentine’s Day approaching Mathspig has reposted this warning.

Chocolate contains a chemical called Theobromine. This alkaloid ( other alkaloids include cocaine, nicotine, caffeine, and strychnine) can kill humans. More info Wired Magazine.

How much chocolate is too much?

Firstly, the darker the chocolate the more Theobromine it contains.

According to About Chemistry based on the highest possible toxicity:

* VetmedicineCooking chocolate contains 8-10 times the Theobromine in Milk Chocolate.

According to Wired large doses of theobromine may cause “nausea and anorexia ….. sweating, trembling and severe headache.”

The Royal Society of Chemistry notes that chocolate does not contain caffeine, but theobromine induces similar symptoms.

LD50 for the lethal dose for 50% of the population for Theobromine is:

1000 mg/kg 0r 1gm/kg of body weight in humans

Death by Chocolate Calculations:

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Zombie MathZ 8: How many Americans believe in Zombies?

March 29, 2025

Yougov Survey

The link above has a breakdown of American age groups that believe in Zombies. Americans that believe in an Apocalypse of some sort, including an alien invasion is fascinating. See Vox Poll here.

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Zombie MathZ 10: Percentages

March 27, 2025

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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TV Ratings, The Matildas and Middle School Maths

August 21, 2023

BBC report here

Or, to be accurate, 43.4% of Australian’s watched the game according to ratings

How TV Ratings are measured in Australia LINK

Is this a reasonable sample size?

For those interested in advanced statistics the Australian Bureau of Statistics has a sample size calculator here.

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MET GALA MATHs for Middle School

September 16, 2021

There is a lot of middle school maths in fashion from design, to fabrication to costing. But it’s much more fun to  see some of the maths in the NY MET GALA outfits.

More on the Wedding Train drag maths here.

More on killer heels here.

 

6. Find suit pattern information here.

Some of these images came from the fab coverage of the MET GALA at Vogue

Do teachers need fashion help? Funny post here

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Death by Chocolate: Yes! Chocolate can kill. But how much would kill you?

February 24, 2021

 Choco Yum Yum! Mathspig lervs chocolate. But did you know chocolate can kill you?

Chocolate contains a chemical called Theobromine. This alkaloid ( other alkaloids include cocaine, nicotine, caffeine, and strychnine) can kill humans. More info Wired Magazine.

How much chocolate is too much?

Firstly, the darker the chocolate the more Theobromine it contains.

According to About Chemistry based on the highest possible toxicity:

* VetmedicineCooking chocolate contains 8-10 times the Theobromine in Milk Chocolate.

According to Wired large doses of theobromine may cause “nausea and anorexia ….. sweating, trembling and severe headache.”

The Royal Society of Chemistry notes that chocolate does not contain caffeine, but theobromine induces similar symptoms.

LD50 for the lethal dose for 50% of the population for Theobromine is:

1000 mg/kg 0r 1gm/kg of body weight in humans

Death by Chocolate Calculations:

1. FORMULA

2. GRAPH

Mathspig Death by Choc Graph

3. Percentage

Mathspig Death by Chocolate % Method

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2. Stuntman Math: Jumping off a Building

October 14, 2019

This is a repost of Mathspig’s very popular Stuntman/woman series.

The main concern when jumping off a building is that the airbag (cardboard boxes) cover the drop zone.

The maths calculations involved in jumping off a building are straightforward. You might like to check out How Maths Solved a real murder.

Jump Height that Kills

It doesn’t take much of a fall to cause damage. Sean Hughes, professor of surgery at Imperial College, London. Says “From a height of 3m you could fracture your spine,” he says. “At around 10m, you’re looking at very serious injuries.” (The Guardian, 20 MAY 2014)

Stunt Jump from building from standing start

1 stunt jump from building

As this jump – as in most base jumps – involves a standing start:

2 Mathspig Jump off building

Airbagsupplies.

Stunt jump from building running

We will assume you are no Usain Bolt. His running speed, the fastest in the world, is 44.72 km/h (12.42m/s, 27.44 mph).

We’ll say your running speed on take-off is:

Vy = 15 mph = 24.1 kph = 6.7 m/sec

3 Mathspig stuntman running jump

Don’t do this at home.

NB: Airbag dimensions: 20m x 20m x 4 m

Handstand of death

Would you jump off a 25 story building?

Watch on Youtube here.

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The Simple Math of Cheap Ice Cream & Why It Melts So Fast

July 19, 2019

Discovery Magazine: Home Made Ice Cream

More ice cream science: the scoop baking

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And the Oscar for Best Mathematical Performance Goes to …..

March 5, 2018

  ………………………………………..

And the Oscar for Best Mathematical Performance Goes to …..

Ben Zauzmer

Ben Zauzmer, a Harvard Applied Math graduate who has a 75 per cent success rate in predicting the winners of Oscar Awards every year, has correctly predicted 20 of 21 winners in 2018 Oscars, which is a success rate of 95%. 

How does he do it? He gathers thousands of data points on Oscar ceremonies over the past two decades – such as categories movies are nominated in, other award results, and aggregate critic scores – and he uses statistics to calculate how good a predictor each of those metrics is in each Oscar category. Then, he plugs in the numbers and that gives him the % chance that each film will win in each category according to  the Boston Globe.

Ben, who writes for The Hollywood Reporter, uses his mathematical model to produce  Bar Graphs like this:

This year the Best Picture was a close call, but Ben’s Mathematical Prediciton was correct.  

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8c. What Volume of Alcohol is Lethal?

August 14, 2017

The Complaint

8c: I Will Never Use this Maths

The Solution:

You are going to use this maths NOW……………..

……………………………………………………………………..

How much alcohol will kill you?

TOPICS: Decimals, %, algebra, vol, weight units (Metric)

At low levels of consumption alcohol impairs decision making and inhibits coordination. It makes you DUMB and CLUMSY, which can cause serious injuries if you, say, fall down stairs.

Legal Age to Buy or Sell Alcohol USA: 21 years

Legal Age to Buy or sell Alcohol AUST, NZ & UK: 18 Years

Legal Age to Buy or sell Alcohol CANADA: 18 – 19 Years depending on region.

At higher levels of consumption ALCOHOL can kill. It is a depressant. It acts on your central nervous system. It can STOP YOU BREATHING.

WORKSHEET PDF:  How Much Alcohol Would Kill You? WORKSHEET

WORKED EXAMPLE

1. Calculate the weight of (pure) alcohol or ethanol in the following standard drinks using the following information:

Now Ethanol =  0.79 gm/ml

More information @ alcohol.org.nz