Six Science posts #94

The math of Louvre heist, NASA's precise calculations, Andromeda viewing and more

Author

Harshal Chhaya
November 03, 2025

Here’s 6 more posts that highlight the beauty and wonder of our world through the math, engineering and science lens.

I scroll so you don’t have to.

Love,

Harshal

P.S. Please forward to others who might enjoy such nuggets of ntersting nformation.

#1 🤯 

The BBC news article has a classically British headline - “Louvre robbery: Could a 50-year-old maths problem have kept the museum safe?”

And it is brilliant in its description of the problem and how other fields have solved similar problems.

Read it at https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20251030-louvre-robbery-the-50-year-old-maths-problem-that-can-boost-museum-security

(A big thanks to Chris Woods - @dailystem on X - for sharing this article)

#2 🤯 

Oh wow! Modern tech for the win! They can track their phone from thousands of miles away but can’t get to it.

I guess there IS such a thing as “too thin” - where it can’t even be recovered from a seat 😮 

#3 🤯 

There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see them

#4 🤯 

🤩 

#5 🤯 

Precise math calculations FTW!

#6 🤯 

Let’s go! 🚀 

This is issue #94. Let’s see what makes 94 an interesting number:

94 is:

  • a semiprime number of the form: 2*q

  • the second number in the third triplet of three consecutive distinct semiprimes, 93, 94 and 95

  • Used as a nonsense number by the British satire magazine Private Eye. Most commonly used in spoof articles end halfway through a sentence with "(continued p. 94)". The magazine never extends to 94 pages: this was originally a reference to the enormous size of some Sunday newspapers.

  • The international calling code for Sri Lanka

  • a “Smith” number because the sum of its digits is equal to the sum of the digits of its prime factors

    • Sum of its digits: 9 + 4 = 13

    • Prime factors: 2, 47

      • Sum of digits of prime factors: 2 + 4 + 7 = 13

    • According to Wikipedia, Smith numbers were named by Albert Wilansky of Lehigh University, as he noticed the property in the phone number (493-7775) of his brother-in-law Harold Smith:

      4937775 = 3 · 5 · 5 · 65837

      while

      4 + 9 + 3 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 5 = 3 + 5 + 5 + (6 + 5 + 8 + 3 + 7)

      (Harshal’s note: What?!? 🤯 )

  • the atomic number of Plutonium (symbol: Pu)

    • Since uranium had been named after the planet Uranus and neptunium after the planet Neptune, element 94 was named after Pluto, which at the time was also considered a planet.

    • Plutonium is the element with the highest atomic number known to occur in nature.

    • The heavy isotope plutonium-244 has a half-life long enough that extreme trace quantities should have survived primordially (from the Earth's formation) to the present, but so far experiments have not yet been sensitive enough to detect it.

    • Unlike most materials, plutonium increases in density when it melts

    • The Fat Man bombs used in the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, and in the bombing of Nagasaki in August 1945, had plutonium cores.

About

This newsletter is my way of sharing interesting science-related news with my curious friends. I enjoy finding science and math connections in our world.

Please share this newsletter with others. Let’s encourage curiosity.

- Harshal (@hschhaya on X/Twitter)

That’s it for this issue.

Hit ‘reply’ to tell me what you think.

And hit ‘forward’ to share with your friends and family.

Let’s all celebrate science and engineering and curiosity.

Best wishes,

Harshal

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