Could we have made it to the moon 8 centuries ago?

 

Image credit: Marsyas: Cornischong at Luxembourgish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CLICK HERE to read the amazing story of the technological achievements of over two millennia ago.

Animal Tales (5) - Sniffer Dogs Join the Fight Against Covid

 

CLICK HERE to read how sniffer dogs are detecting covid faster and more accurately than PCR tests.

Animal Tales (4)

It really is amazing what you can find when you're just looking for trees.

A TRIP TO FIND TREES (where we return with more than we'd bargained for)

Animal Tales (3)

When you go shopping for your dog or pony, do you let them come into the store to choose for themselves?

Animal Tales (2)

Chickens are not dinosaurs ... but ... their ancestors go way way back.

READ MORE HERE

Animal Tales (1)

While Horse of the Same Colour is getting ready for the showring, I have looked out some animal tales to entertain you. Here is the first. It chronicles the reading habits of a dog.

READING THE CANINE CHRONICLE

Horse of the Same Colour Gallops Towards the Line

Horse of the Same Colour - sequel to Horse of a Different Colour - is fast closing in on the finish line. There is a whole book now in existence and it just needs a lick and a polish. That is to say, it has worked hard over the past year training itself up for the big show. It is fit and ready to go, but not yet ready for the show ring. With a bath to clean its coat, some firm application of brushes and combs to neatly plait its mane and tail, some trimming round the hoofs and a sparkling finish on all its tack, it should be heading for the book shelves before too long.

CLICK HERE for a reminder of the new cast members.

How do you wash your hair in space?

Astronaut, Karen Nyberg, washes her hair on board the International Space Station. It looks kind of odd because there's no up or down. Water stays where it's put or floats away, and hair totally does its own thing. 

How to clean your teeth in space

Have you ever wondered how to do everyday things in zero gravity - like cleaning your teeth, using the toilet or sleeping without floating away? Megan and Amy sometimes discuss these things.

Here's astronaut, Sunita Williams, giving us a tour of the International Space Station and showing us how they manage the everyday things in life.

More ponies having fun in paddling pools

This week another five minutes of fun activities with Emma Massingale, some of which probably come under the umbrella of don't try this at home unless you have some amenable ponies and plenty of room.

Cross country training with a mule

Today, we're back with pony lover and horse trainer, Emma Massingale, as she takes her Connemara, Evenos, and Manuel the Mule on a cross-country adventure. Check out the video to see how they got on.

The pony who didn't like being bathed, shows how it should be done

Today, I want to introduce you to someone who loves ponies. She's called Emma Massingale and she has 11 miniature ponies. When she couldn't take them to the beach during lockdown, Emma decided to get a paddling pool.

Check out the video to see how they did - or didn't - like it. And who got the wettest...

What do unicorns love to eat that can get them into trouble?

Naturally, I'm not going to give you the answer, but I'm going to point you to a real cool video where one of the riddles involves this stuff:

Imagine a unicorn in the stickiest of situations and you will have one of the answers. And to get all of the answers, you'll need to take a look at this video:

Real horses really flying - what's more, travelling business class

The Japan Olympics has recently ended. There were a lot of horses there. They'd come from all over the world.

How did they get there and why weren't they exhausted when they arrived? After all, some of them travelled half way around the world.

Check out this video to see the preparations and travel arrangements for a whole plane load of dressage horses.

Why do horses react differently to different people?

Here is a video where Callie gives us some useful information on how and why horses can act differently with different people.

Callie gives 5 reasons, but those who already know Jack, Megan and Amy will be able to add a 6th. And when the new book is out, there will be more ponies than Jack to think about. A lot of new characters have already been introduced earlier on this blog.

Cats and birds are not always the best mix

Share some fun feline-avian interaction videos with Jack while we’re waiting for news:

Things are not always as they seem - in a lot of different ways

Here are Jesse and Mike getting it all wrong on video, but in an entertaining way.

What's the lesson? 

Answer: Don't feed gummy bears to any kind of horses.

And what's the link between Jesse and Mike's shenanigans and Megan and Amy's? 

Answer: In an odd kind of way, there are quite a few links and once you get to read what Megan and Amy get tangled up in, you'll see just where Jesse and Mike got things wrong. 

Almost time for lift off

I have been counting up for 28 weeks* now, and although it's not quite time to start counting down, I've decided it's time to stop counting up. Here's why:

The first draft of Horse of the Same Colour is nearing completion.

That doesn’t mean it will be published next week or anything. There is still a lot to do. It must be polished up until it shines. Then it will be thrown to the fearsome editors at Fantastic Books Publishing who will kick it about and try to break it (that’s their job). And after that it will go into the mysterious process known as ‘production’ whereby a raw manuscript gets sucked in at one end and a shiny new book pops out the other.

We are getting closer to the point where it will be given a publication date. You’ll hear the champagne corks pop when that message arrives.

----

*It seems to be 28 weeks but I'm prepared to be caught out if anyone has been counting closely.

A fascinating fact that can be written in cake

 

Jack and I are always interested in odd facts about numbers (or odd facts about even numbers, or even peculiar facts about odd numbers).

This is a quirk of the number 40 which, as you can see above, can be made into delicious party food. I should say it's a quirk of the number 'forty' because it relates specifically to the spelling. 

The letters in FORTY are arranged in ascending alphabetical order.

That might not look so special at first glance, but in fact it's the only number where that is true.

A message for people who follow my blog

Image by Klimkin

Jack loves a shiny new gadget and for week 27 of the CountUp we're reporting that we've taken the opportunity of a brand new book on the horizon to switch to a brand new way of keeping in touch with the people who follow our blog. We've switched to follow.it which is the shiny new gizmo now at the top right hand side of the page. Turns out that follow.it is for both blog readers and blog writers so do check out the link and see what's there for you.

Dinosaur on the phone!

Image by Roberto Bellasio

For  Week 26 (of the countUP) the link below will give you a line up of dinosaurs by size. Not that they could ever have lined up in this way as they didn't all exist at the same time. 

By the time the later dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the early ones were no more than ancient fossils.

In fact, the gap between the existence of Tyranosaurus Rex and Stegosaurus is greater than the gap between Tyranosaurus Rex and the iPhone.

The rather strange racetrack owner and the MASSIVE lorry

Image by AndreasIken from Pixabay

For week 25 (of the countUP) here is a neat bit of horsey maths from one of my favourite YouTubers.

I can’t think of a reason why you would need to work out which are the three fastest out of 25 horses, but maybe you can. And anyway, let’s suppose that’s the case.

OK, you have your 25 horses and you take them to a racetrack. Hey, that’s a MASSIVE lorry you have. Does it need a special licence to drive it?

The racetrack owner says, ‘Please use my racetrack but only 5 horses at a time please. Oh and I need it back, so be as quick as you can.’

Right then! 25 horses to be raced 5 at a time. What’s the smallest number of races it will take? Go!

Don't try this at home!

Just a bit of fun for week 24. Click the link for a 10 minute peek into the world of Tommy Turvey and Pokerjoe.

The first draft of Horse of the Same Colour is getting close to complete and although neither Megan nor Amy gets up to any of the antics shown, some of the things that happen come close.

Have you ever met someone with the same birthday as you?

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images

Have you ever been in a group of people and discovered that someone else shares your birthday? Does that seem like an amazing coincidence? 

Not so, it’s just chance. 

In any group of 23 people, there is a 50-50 chance that two of them will have the same birthday. Click the link below for an explanation of why.

https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/

 

Week 23 of the countUP

Animated Horses

Just for fun this week here are 22 horse animations:

For those who are counting, this is week 22 of the countUP 

It might look impossible, but it's not

As this is week 21 of the count up *and* it happens to be the 21st of the month, here is a problem involving the number 21:-

9 + 10 = 21

Is that impossible? 

Turns out it’s not. 

In fact there are many ways to make it true, but they involve dealing in number bases. So if number bases are not your thing, forget that side of things, and just enjoy this video from Presh Talwalker for its fascinating insight into the history of numbers.

And this is why we're doing a countUP

A really weird sum

If ONE costs £1 and TWO costs £2 and ELEVEN costs £11, would it seem obvious to you that TWELVE costs £12?

And could you show why?

Here’s a handy hint: if you rearrange the letters in this: “TWO PLUS ELEVEN” you can make this “ONE PLUS TWELVE” and both answers are the same.

And here’s Presh Talwalker talking through the whole story:

For those who are counting, this is week 20 of the countUP 

Some useful tips for GCSE English Language

Last week we looked at GCSE Maths and some useful tips to get good marks. Here’s Jake again talking about English Language

For those who are counting, this is week 19 of the countUP

We're starting something different this week

Exciting news: the adventures of Megan, Amy, Jack and all the people mentioned in the professor's video HERE are getting close to a first full draft of a book, but this means things are getting busy and there isn't always time to remember which week of the count up we've reached (but I'll try) so for this final stretch towards the finish line, let's do something different.

Is anyone out there heading towards their GCSE Maths and feeling worried that they might not do very well? Here are some top tips for top marks:

If your first thought is evasion

At the sight of an equation

And you'd like to up your mark

But you're totally in the dark

Then try this neat persuasion

From a YouTuber named Clarke

In the video, Jake mentions Corbettmaths. Find them HERE.

And by the way, it's week 18 this week, but who's counting?

Week 17 of the count up

17

17 is a prime number like 13. Its connection with the number 13 and with cicadas is that cicadas can incubate underground for years, but not a random number of years; either 13 or 17.

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN?

Week 16 of the count up

16

Week 16 of the count up and here’s a maths problem given as homework to 9 year olds in Taiwan. Never mind “Mind Your Decisions”, which is where this comes from, this one will blow your mind.

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN? 

Week 15 of the count up

15

Week 15 of the count up and here’s another puzzle from Mind Your Decisions. And since this is week 15, here’s a hint. The answer is NOT 15.

 

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN?

Week 14 of the count up

14

Week 14 of the count up and here’s something different from a YouTube mathematician called Presh Talwalker whose YouTube channel is called Mind Your Decisions. In this video he shows you a neat way to work out the radius of a heart.

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN?

Week 13 of the count up

13

13 is a prime number and has an underground connection to cicadas – check out week 17 for more.

 

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN?

Sorry and a bit of a repeat

Let's call this 12.5

Week 12.5 of the countUP went out with an error in it. Jack must have stamped his hoof in the wrong place. Very irritating for anyone who actually wanted to know what the sum back in week 2 actually was. This time the link works - I hope!

The answer is still ‘twelve plus one’.

 

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN?

Week 12 of the count up

12

Remember the sum back in week 2? The answer is ‘twelve plus one’.

 

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN?

SPECIAL AUDIO ANNOUNCEMENT

 Is that the unmistakeable thunder of galloping horses? Looks like it might be. 

I'm interrupting this blog count down (or rather count up) with the special announcement that Horse of a Different Colour is now available as an audiobook. 

CLICK HERE

Week 11 of the count up

11

Week 11 of the count up, and time to take stock. 

All the new cast is now embedded in the book, that includes Solo, Fmelodie, Tristan and Starlight Piglet, but Megan and Amy haven't properly met them all. At least not - as Amy would say - been introduced in a 'pleased to meet you' kind of way. In fact, Megan isn't quite sure she wants to meet Tristan properly. She has a feeling they've already met and that she didn't do well out of the encounter.

I’m not planning to get to week 1000, but I have a neat 1000 fact so I’ll put it here. It’s about the letter ‘a’. Although not as common as ‘e’, it is the second commonest vowel in the English language. Yet how many times would it appear if you were to write out the numbers from 0 to 1000?

Answer (surprisingly): just once. 

It is still a countUP but before too long it'll be a countDOWN,

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN.

Week 10 of the count up

10

We’re now in week 10 of the count up. Do you remember that back in week 6 I said that there was a connection to the number 10? It is that 10 factorial (usually written 10! And meaning 10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1) equals the exact number of seconds in 6 weeks.

 

Why is this a countUP and not acountDOWN.

Week 9 of the count up

 9

Nine is an interesting number to multiply. If you add together the digits of the answer, you always end up back with 9.

2 * 9 = 18

Add together 1 and 8 et voila! 9

Or really go mad and try something bigger:

56 * 9 = 504

5+0+4 = 9

And even where you don’t immediately get back to 9, then add together the numbers of the answer until you get back to a single digit and it will always be 9.

55 * 9 = 495

4+9+5 = 18

1+8 = 9.

 

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

Week 8 of the count up

8

This week I’m using the fact that 4 + 4 = 8.

Pick any 4-digit number (it must contain at least 2 different digits, so it could be 4985, or 5583 etc but not 5555)

1.     Write the digits in ascending order e.g. 4985 would become 4589

2.     Now write the digits in descending order e.g. 4985 would become 9854

3.     Now subtract the smaller number from the larger e.g. 9854 minus 4589 equals 5265

Now start again at 1 with this new number, and eventually you will end up with 6174, no matter where you start. The number 6174 is known as Kaprekar’s constant. 

 

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

Week 7 of the count up

7

Seven is a number that crops up all over the place: 7 dwarves, 7 days in the week, 7 wonders of the world etc. It is also popular as a ‘favourite number’ and has come top in favourite number polls.

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

Interrupting the count up with an audio announcement

Horse of a Different Colour is due out as an audiobook any day now. Watch this space! But as for Horse of the Same Colour, this is week 6 of the count up and things are going well.

6

The number 6, because it denotes 6 weeks, has an interesting connection to the number 10 – check out week 10 for more. If I was counting up in days, this connection wouldn’t work.

 

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

 

Week 5 of the count up

 5

Five is an odd number and like all odd numbers, it has at least one ‘e’ in its name.

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

 

Week 4 of the count up

 

4

The number 4 has 4 letters in its name: f-o-u-r. Bet you can’t find any other number that does that.

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

Week 3 - a sneak preview of Megan and Amy's favourite game

Megan and Amy find themselves entangled in trying to keep a secret that they're not even sure they know, but in between times they like to relax and play board games - sometimes they allow mums and dads to play, sometimes they don't. 

Their current favourite is The Gorgon's Loch.

This is a real game. It's due to be out shortly before Horse of the Same Colour, and you can get yourself first in the queue for a copy by heading over to the project page and signing up. It costs just the same whether you buy now or later BUT Megan advises you to buy now because there are some really cool add-ons that won't be available later.

Go and take a look on THIS LINK and leave a comment to say what you think.

3

Here's a cool fact about the number 3: Somewhere between 3 and 4 is the mathematical constant, Pi. It can be defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and is approximately equal to 3.142 but you can keep those decimal points going forever.

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICK HERE for the New Year post 

Week 2 of the count up

2

‘eleven plus two’ is an anagram of another sum that also equals 13. Can you work out that sum? The answer will be in a few posts from now.

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICK HERE for the New Year post

A unique number

A happy, safe and prosperous 2021 to everyone

Having introduced all the new characters and hinted at the BIG SECRET, I had hoped to start a Countdown to Publication. But I can’t because I don’t have a publication date yet.

However, the book will be published in 2021 so instead of a countDOWN, I’m doing a countUP. When I get a date, I will reverse direction and count down.

This is week 1.

1 is an interesting number. It’s neither a prime number nor a composite number. Every other whole number is one or the other.