MONKEYS AND CHEESE

I got a new gig teaching math at, a college. I start tomorrow. To be honest with you, I’m scared out of my fucking mind, but never mind that. Look, how cool this math problem is:

Say you want to tie a piece of string tight around the earth. So you want to know how much string you’re going to need. What dimension will you need? The circumference. Right. Okay, does anyone know the circumference of the earth? Yeah, I don’t either. Let’s just call it 2PiR. R being the radius of the earth. Now, let’s say you change your mind. Now you want the string to be big enough to fit around the earth, but hover six inches over the true surface. How much more string will you need? So 2(PiR + 6) is the new length. If you apply the Distribute Law you get 2PiR + 12Pi. Then you subtract 2PiR because you want the difference between the original length and the new length. This leaves you with 12Pi inches, which ends up being a little under three feet.

I know.
Whoa.

The crazy thing is if you apply this equation to a golf ball, you will get the exact same answer. 12Pi, or approximately three feet. Isn’t that insanely cool? I stayed up until four a.m. last night thinking about this. And today at The Diner, I felt like a total space alien due to lack in sleep.