The Handy Math Answer Book

our star 30 times. In order to work out how old a person is on another planet, the per-
son’s age has to be divided by the period of revolution (in terms of Earth years). Thus,
if the same 30-Earth-year-old person lived on Saturn, he or she would be just over one
Saturn year old (30/29.5 1.02 Saturn years). On Mercury, the person would be 124.5
Mercury years old (30/0.241 124.5 Mercury years).

Calculating Your Age and Weight on Other Space Bodies

Time to Orbit Gravity (Weight)

Space Body around the Sun* Compared to Earth

Mercury 87.9 days 38%

Venus 224.7 days 91%

Earth 1 year 100%

Moon 1** 17%

Mars 1.88 years 38%

Jupiter 11.9 years 254%

Saturn 29.5 years 93%

Uranus 84 years 80%

Neptune 164.8 years 120%

Pluto 248.5 years unknown

Sun N/A 2800%

• In Earth days or years.
  **Of course, the Moon travels with the Earth around the Sun, so it orbits the Sun once per Earth
  year. However, the Moon also orbits the Earth 13.37 times per year. 441

RECREATIONAL MATH

How can I prove that 1 0?

T

here is a way to show that one equals zero, and it includes an interesting

“proof”:

Consider two non-zero numbers x and y such that x y. If that is so, then x^2

xy. Subtracting y^2 from both sides gives: x^2 y^2 xy y^2. Then dividing by

(x y) gives x y y; and since x y, then 2y y. Thus 2 1; the proof start-

ed with y as a non-zero, so subtracting 1 from both sides gives 1 0.

The problem with this proof? If x y, then x y 0. Notice that halfway

through the “proof,” the equation was divided by (x y), which makes the proof

erroneous.