Do you remember our April Fool’s Day news story last month? In the spoof article, we pretended that the UK’s new 50p commemorative coin, which contains Stephen Hawking’s famous equation for the entropy of a black hole, contained an error. We claimed that the mistake had been discovered by 14-year-old French mathematical-physics prodigy “April Lapremiere”. She found, we pretended, that Hawking had been out by a factor of two and that the coin should have had a “2” on the denominator, rather than a “4”. The coin, we lied, was now being withdrawn.
The joke should have been obvious as we laid it on pretty thick. Unfortunately, it went over the head of one reader – Jacob L (who is too embarrassed to have his full name revealed). A coin-collecting “warehouse grunt” with a keen interest in science, but no formal training, he e-mailed us this week to say he’d heard about the coin and had been interested in getting one for his personal collection. “But when I saw the article by April Lapremiere, detailing how the coin was recalled due to an error in the equation, I quickly bought two of the silver proof coins for $300,” he wrote. “How I wish I knew French! I didn’t see the date, nor did I understand that it was a joke – I am no mathematician!”
Part of the problem for Jacob L was that we always “unpublish” our April Fool’s stories before 1 April is over to, er, avoid people getting the wrong end of the stick. But not having a way to track down the story, he later could not quite remember what we had written. And that’s when he decided to fork out for two of the coins, which might well have risen in price due to their future rarity (if the story had at all been true). Fortunately, Jacob L saw the funny side and is happy to share his cautionary tale with other readers. “If the story can make someone laugh (though at my expense), it is worth sharing,” he signed off. “Next year, I’ll be a bit sharper come April first…”
Elsewhere in the Red Folder, there are some fantastic photos doing the rounds of Chaos the lion undergoing radiotherapy for skin cancer. The 16-year-old big cat received the treatment in South Africa, where he lives in a zoo located between Johannesburg and Pretoria. Chaos was sedated, and the treatment took just five minutes. He has three more sessions scheduled over the next few weeks, so good luck Chaos.
How do you get a jet of water to coil around a cylinder? Physicists in the Netherlands have done just that. Their research could lead to better ink jets – and possibly better teapots. You can find out more in “Liquid jet coils around cylinder”.
