The Express Tribune hi five - May 20

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Discover the mysterious origins of zero!

PAGE 2 Impress your friends with some math tricks PAGE 3 Want to know how to make your own kite?

PAGE 4 Banana game controllers? No way!

PAGE 5

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 20, 2012

Hi light

2 Yes, z e r o , yes we know there was that exams are over much confusion and math is probably the about written numbers. last thing on your mind, but what For instance, if the symbol for we’re going to tell you about is stuff 5 was written down, there was that will not only blow your teacher’s no way to distinguish between 5, 50, mind, but may just get you out of trouble and 5,000,000. Zero was introduced to next time you can’t answer a math question. avoid these problems and to keep people Picture this: You’re daydreaming in class and from going crazy while counting their money! your teacher calls on you and asks: ‘What’s 124 In India, the idea of 0 was discovered earmultiplied by 5 and divided by 4?’ instead of freezing lier than in Babylon. The use of a blank tile on up and fainting in sheer terror you can distract her by a counting board to represent zero dates back saying: ‘yes, well before I answer that I’d like to ask you to 4th century BC. Indian scholar Pingala used a question.’ Then she’ll say ‘what’s that?’ and you can re- to use the Sanskrit word Shuniya to refer to zero. ply: p y ‘tell me who invented the zero and why should we even Weirdly enough, it took another 1,200 years for somecare?’ And then, th he while she stares at you dumbfounded, you one to write this down! In 825 AD, zero officially became can read them m this article and come off looking like a genius! part of the Hindi Arabic number system when Persian funny little number, and some people can’t scientist, al-Khwarizm, wrote a book on arithmetic. It took Zero is a fu even agree if it’s even a number in the first place. I mean another couple centuries for the West to give up their doesn’t really stand for anything, does it? So clunky Roman numbers and start using the Arabic system. after all, it d even need it? Well, try to picture what life why do we e e Later on, Italian mathematician Fibonacci built on alwould be lilike ke without it? For one thing, you’d never know Khwarizm’s work and it got noticed by Italian merchants how much h money you’ve collected as Eidi – is it Rs100, and German bankers. Before this, zero was only used by Rs1,000 Rs1,00 00 or (if you’re really lucky) Rs10,000? You can’t mathematicians and astronomers, but now everyone figure figu ur it out without zeros! Also, without a zero, started using it! And that is the history of the famous zero. there th he would be no math – and while you may So the next time someone calls think that’s a good thing – no math means no you a ‘zero’, smile and thank th If you look at ccomputers, no Playstation and no TV either! them and then walk Roman numerals, one is I So sit tight while we tell you away leaving them just like in Arabic, a single stroke, where the zero came from! totally confused! and two is II like the Romans, except It took people quite a long time to come the Arabs don’t pick up their pen between up with the idea of zero, and now no one strokes (writing right-to-left), so it comes can decide who should get the credit! Many out more like this: . Three is the same, but think that the zero was devised by the with three strokes: . It doesn’t take much Arabs but it was actually in 200-300 A Under the thinking to realise that the Europeans, when BC that the Babylonians began usRoman system the numbers are written ing a symbol that would eventuthey went to see these new Arabic numerals, differently. M means ally become our zero. That’s were looking from the left side of the Arab a thousand, D stands more than 2,200 years ago! who was demonstrating them, so they got for 500, C stands for a Before mathemati- hundred, L for fifty, X for their twos and threes sideways. Any cians understood ten, V for five and I for thoughts about how they came up one. the idea of with four?

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 20, 2012

Hi light

3 Always Get 1

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THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 20, 2012

Activity Corner

4 Make a kite

Wouldn’t it be awesome to learn how to create your own kite? Here is how.

Supplies needed: • 13-gallon (49-litre) plastic trash bag (white bags are best for decorating) • Two straight sticks, one 24 inches long, the other 20 inches long • Scissors • String • Ruler • Clear packing tape • Ribbon and permanent markers for additional decoration

1 p e t S

Cut open the trash bag to form a flat plastic sheet. Measure six inches down on the long stick and make a mark. Lay the short stick at the mark and form a “T” or cross shape. Tie the sticks together and use some tape if necessary.

Put the sticks down on the trash bag and use your ruler to draw a line around the frame from the top stick to the side and then down to the bottom point. Use your ruler to continue the outline on the other side of the T-shape. It should look like a diamond.

Cut your diamond two inches wider than your diamond pattern.

3 p e t S

Step 2

Lay the sticks on the plastic diamond shape and fold the edges over the stick frame and tape it down. Turn the kite over and decorate it using your markers.

Cut a piece of string 20 inches long. Poke holes in the top and bottom of the kite and tie the string in a knot in the top and bottom holes (if necessary, use some tape to keep it secure). Then tie on the rest of your string to the middle of the string. Tape the ribbon to the bottom of the kite to create a tail for your kite.

Step 4

On a windy day, take your kite outside and start running, holding tightly onto the kite string.

Keep your kite away from power lines and trees.

Remember kids, always get permission from your parents before you start. It’s always a good idea to have a helper nearby.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 20, 2012

World wide weird

5

Get your weekly dose of the unusual and funny from across the globe!

A real show stopper per Ever thought you skipped a heartbeat? How about ut putting that to practice on camera in front of a large audience? ience?

Well that’s exactly how Cristian Gog won Romania’s ia’s Got Talent by slowing his heartbeat to zero.

Cristian Gog, who calls himself a ‘magic mentalist’, was hooked up to a heart monitor and assisted by two qualified medics to perform his death-defying stunt.

The 31-year-old arrived on stage saying: “This evening I will risk everything. I will risk my life. Forr the act, I need the help of a doctor. I will defy death live ve on air.”

He was then tested and at a given point was shown own to have a total lack of cardiac activity.

Not content with that, Cristian then opened a locked ocked suitcase and took out sheets of paper with the comments the judges had just made written on them.

After scooping the £100,000 (Rs14.5 million) prize, he said: “When I did the act I was left without heartbeats and now I’m left without words.”

Second and third places were taken by Mihai Petraiche with a robot dance and Cristian Leana, who solved a Rubik’s cube blindfolded and with only one hand. SOURCE: THESUN.CO.UK

Go bananas! as!

Have you ever wanted to play video games with a banana? Well ell we sure have. Now it’s no longerr an impossible dream. With the help of the MaKey MaKey, you can turn everyday objects into a gamepad. That literally meanss that you’re able to turn a banana a into an input device. This projectt is currently being funded via Kickstarter and you can pick up a kit there for $35 (Rs3,181). How does it work? Well, you first link a banana to the jump connector, r, and tether your arm to one of the he earth contacts, then when you touch the banana a connection is made and your character in the game jumps. If you want to use different keys, you can reprogram the unit.

An online video even shows a controller made with a notebook and bits of Play Doh that is used to play Super Mario Bros. What more could a gamer ask for really!

SOURCE: NINTENDO3DSBLOG.COM

Give this girl a hand!!

It always pays off to be athletic. In this case, children in Africa rica are literally going to be paid by a Cardiff-based student who ho is aiming to raise money for charity by doing a handstand every day for a year.

Julie Durmont, 26, a neuroscience student, came up with h the idea to raise money to build playgrounds in Uganda.

Durmont, from Canada, decided on the challenge after joinning a Facebook group called Handstand February. “While I was doing Handstand February, some of my friends said that I should do this for a whole year. My response was ‘are re you crazy?’” she said.

“However, when the month ended, I was wondering ‘now what?’ and also wanted to continue improving as I noticed oticed that I was getting better at them,” she added. So she found the charity East African Playgrounds online and decided it perfectly matched her ideal cause.

So far, she has completed more than 100 handstands and hopes to finish the challenge in January 2013, in the same week as completing her PhD. Some of her more spectacular handstands include one on a plane’s wing and one next to Darth Vader. SOURCE: WEB.ORANGE.CO.UK

El Chocalato Here is a treat for all you chocolate-lovers out there: Qzina Specialty Foods has broken a Guinness World Record by building the world’s largest chocolate sculpture. e.

Modeled after an ancient Mayan temple, the Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza, the work weighs a whopping 18,239 pounds, which far surpasses the previous ous record of 7,500 pounds. The company’s corporate pastry chef, Francois Mellet, led ed the effort, with help from top craftsman Stephane Treand. Altogether, the project ct took more than 400 hard hours of construction. We wonder if the craftsmen were busy building the sculpture or taking a bite of it, may be that is why it took them so long to complete the massive structure. Their attention to detail was extraordinary -- the structure was exactly proportional to its inspiration, down to o the number of steps and panels. It’s precisely one-thirtieth the size of the original al with a base of 10 feet by 10 feet and a height of six feet.

“Breaking a Guinness World Record for building the largest chocolate sculpture will be Qzina’s greatest masterpiece yet,” said Qzina founder and CEO Richard hard Foley. “We studied Mayan pyramids at great lengths to create an exact replica of the temple.” The sculpture, he said, was created in celebration of the company’s 30th anniversary and its newly opened Qzina Institute of Chocolate and Pastry.

The pyramid will be on display at the institute from June 4 through December 21, when the Mayan calendar comes to an end. Fittingly, it’ll then be destroyed. SOURCE: HUFFINGTONPOST.COM

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 20, 2012

Did you know?

6

s n i g i r O d r Wo What do you do when you really need to know something and no one - not your parents, friends or teachers - know the answer? Well, you google it of course! The search engine Google has become so popular that ‘google’ is now actually considered a real word by the Oxford English Dictionary. But did you know that it’s actually a misspelling isspelling of another word? That word is ‘googol’ and it stands ds for one of the biggest numbers of all: one followed by a hundred zeroes! That’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000! When mathematician Edward Kasner came up with the number in 1940, he asked his nine-year-old nephew what he should call it and he replied: ‘Googol!’

Crazy laws!

In Calgary, Alberta, there is still a by-law that requires businesses within the city to provide rails for tying up horses.

Cool facts Pteronophobia is the fear of being tickled by feathers!

When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.

In Samoa, it’s a crime to forget your own wife’s birthday.

A flock of crows is known as a murder.

In London, England, it is illegal for a City cab to carry rabid dogs or corpses.

The average woman uses her height in lipstick every 5 years.

In England, it is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.

May 29 is officially “Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day”.

In Texas, it’s illegal to threaten somebody with an unloaded gun.

Cherophobia is the fear of fun.

In York, England, it is legal to kill a Scotsman within the ancient city boundary, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.

In London, it is illegal to flag down a taxi if you have the plague.

In Kentucky, US, it’s illegal to paint your lawn red.

Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.

If you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground it can’t hop.

The person who invented the Frisbee was cremated and made into frisbees after he died!

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 20, 2012

7

Fun & games

Want to be hi five’s artist of the week?

Send your drawing with your name and age to: hifive@tribune. com.pk

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 20, 2012

Find your way through the maze

SOURCE: PRINTACTIVITIES.COM

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