A MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM
Sir-Some time ago, in an article about Hendrik Van Loon, someone made the following statement: "If everybody in this world were six feet tall, a foot and a-half wide and a foot thick, then the whole of the human race could be packed into a box measuring half-a-mile in each direction." Now I understand that prior to this war, the population of the world was approximately 1,700,000,000 people. This being so, it seems to me impossible that they could all be packed in a box half-a-mile square; but as I am no mathe.
matician, the problem remaifts unsolved for me. If it is not asking too much of anyone, would some kind person who is clever at mathematics say whether Van
Loon’s assertion is correct?-
ANTICI
PATION
(Christchurch),
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19441215.2.13.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 286, 15 December 1944, Page 7
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131A MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 286, 15 December 1944, Page 7
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