#Octothorpe

Dec 1, 2019 | Hinsdale

The number sign.

The tic-tac-toe board.

The pound sign.

The sharp sign (in music).

The hashtag.

The octothorpe (#) has worn many hats, but it got it's name from the Latin term libra pondo, which is why "pound" is abbreviated as "lb."

Mental Floss adds that, "At the time, it was common to add a horizontal bar to abbreviations, known as a tittle, to show that the two letters were connected, and that the letter “l” was not the numeral 1."

It was in such common usage in the first half of the 20th century that AT&T added both the "#" and the "*" to their phone keypads!

To learn more about the octothorpe, click here!

The Pythagorean Theorem and its Consequences

Jun 28, 2023 | Hinsdale

Rubik's Snake - Our New Favorite Puzzle

May 3, 2023 | Hinsdale

In 1981, Ernő Rubik, hot on the heels of his 1977 smash-hit the Rubik's Cube, invented and released the Rubik's Snake, a very different kind of puzzle. The Snake consists of 24 isosceles triangular prisms, connected by spring bolts. The prisms can't be separated, but they can be twisted, allowing one to form the snake into many different shapes.

National Poetry Month & Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month

Apr 12, 2023 | Hinsdale

April is not only Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, it's also National Poetry Month! To celebrate this union of art and science, the Smithsonian Magazine published [an article](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-poetry-and-math-intersect-180968869/) all about poets and mathematicians who have brought the two disciplines...

#Octothorpe

Related Articles

The Pythagorean Theorem and its Consequences

Rubik's Snake - Our New Favorite Puzzle

National Poetry Month & Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month