Challenge
Can you tell truth from myth?
Test yourself with these tales.
Each could be true, part-myth or myth.
The truth about each story can be found below the image that follows the story.
Truth, Part-Myth or Myth?
1. William Shanks was an amateur mathematician who lived in the 19th century. His dearest wish was that his gravestone should record his devotion to mathematics.
He had calculated pi to as many decimal places as he could, which was 707. In those days, this was no mean feat, requiring over 15 years work, breaking the previous world record for pi’s precision.
Shanks had pi engraved on his gravestone to 707 decimal places.
Unfortunately, the last 179 decimal places in his calculation were wrong. Oops!
Truth, part-myth or myth?
Pi correct to 707 decimal places
Answer 1
2. Okay, a solitary mathematician got things wrong. Science and tech as a whole don’t fail, do they?
Well, unfortunately they do, and when it happens, it can be big, costly and embarrassing.
In 1999, NASA’s Mars Climate Observer went AWOL because engineers at Lockheed Martin had been working in feet and pounds, while NASA had been working in meters and kilograms!
The Climate Observer was meant to go into orbit around the Red Planet, but the numbers fed into the navigation system were wrong; the Climate Observer crashed into Mars and was destroyed – a waste of over a hundred million dollars and a major setback to our knowledge about Mars’s climate. So, yes, even major-league Science & Tech can get it wrong.
Truth, part-myth or myth?
Is the wreckage of the Climate Observer out there somewhere?
Answer 2
3. Menelik the Second, Emperor of Abyssinia, was a trendy sort of ruler, desperate for his people to have access to the latest technology. His big idea was to import electric chairs from the United States of America, so that Abyssinia could carry out executions using an up-to-date method. Hey, everyone would see how forward thinking Menelik was!
BUT… nobody had told Menelik that the chairs needed an electricity supply to do their grim work. Abyssinia didn’t have one! Nevertheless, impressed by the design of the chairs, Menelik had one of them converted into his new throne.
Truth, part-myth or myth?
Answer 3
4. On April 1, 1976, the well-known British astronomer Patrick Moore told early morning listeners to BBC Radio that something very strange would happen that morning.
He said that at 9:47 a.m. everyone would feel the effects of a rare alignment of the planets Jupiter and Pluto. When Pluto moved behind Jupiter, their gravities would briefly combine, reducing gravity on our own planet.
Listeners could verify the effect by jumping into the air at 9:47 a.m., when they would feel a floating sensation.
Of course, this was an April Fools’ prank cooked up by Moore and the BBC.
Sure enough, at 9:47 a.m., large numbers of people who had not realized it was a prank jumped into the air. Soon the BBC was getting hundreds of telephone calls confirming the decrease in gravity – yes, people had really felt like they were floating. One lady reported that she and her friends had floated out of their seats at 9:47 a.m.
Truth, part-myth or myth?
Answer 4
5. Venus Hop by the one-hit-wonder group Frankie and the Fireballs peaked at number 16 in the U.S. Billboard Pop Chart on September 28, 1963.
Frankie and the Fireballs consisted of five of NASA/JPL’s young engineers: Frankie Webster (vocals), Bill Morrison (guitar), Stephen Renzetti (guitar), Gerald Neugebauer (bass), and Herb McDowell (drums).
Although such activities were in breach of their employment contracts, the positive publicity NASA/JPL got at a time when they were trying to convince Congress to increase their funding meant the engineers were encouraged to release more songs.
Unfortunately, their next four releases all flopped, and the engineers abandoned their pop music careers.
Truth, part-myth or myth?
Answer 5