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The world is full of beautiful equations , numbers and calculations . From matter astragal as tot to managing funds as adults , we employ math every day . But scientist often go beyond these routine conformation of reckoning , to measure , weigh and tally far unknown things in the universe . From the act of bubbles in a distinctive looking glass of beer to the weighting of all the coronavirus particles circulating in the humanity , here are 10 weird things scientist calculated in 2021 .

Related : pic : big numbers that define the universe

A close-up of a glass of beer shows rising bubbles and a foamy head.

Beer bubbles

Pouring ice - cold beer into a glass forms lots of flyspeck house of cards — and thanks to some thirsty scientist , now we know how many .

These scientist forecast that a half - pint glass of beer produces up to 2 million bubbles , about twice as many bubbles as Champagne score . But the researchers establish that the routine of bubble in a half - pint glass ranged from 200,000 to 2 million , according to their study , bring out in March in the journalACS Omega . It turns out that the number of bubbles count on three broker : the concentration of dissolvedcarbondioxide ( CO2 ) in the crank , the loudness of bubble and the point at which the CO2 depletes such that no more bubbles form . Also , tiny flaws in the glass would help bubbles issue from the liquid .

Read more : How many bubbles are in a crank of beer ?

SARS-CoV-2 particles

Weight of SARS-CoV-2

If you were to get together all the speck of SARS - CoV-2 , the computer virus that make COVID-19 , go around around the globe into one space , the weight of the tiny , invisible mote would be somewhere between that of an apple and a young yearling , harmonize to a study published in June in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . That calculation is ground on the appraisal that each infected individual carry about 10 billion to 100 billion SARS - CoV-2 particles at the peak of their infection . If there are between 1 million and 10 million infections at any give sentence , which has been the case during the class of thepandemic , the subatomic particle together would consider somewhere between 0.22 and 22 pound ( 0.1 and 10 kilograms ) .

" Here we are talking about a super - midget mass of virus , and they are all work mayhem on the domain , " the researchers told Live Science .

Read more : How much does all the SARS - CoV-2 in the world weigh ?

A herd of elephants are photographed from above

Elephants from space

Using planet and stilted intelligence , researchers counted Africanelephantsfrom outer space for the first time , according to a study put out online in Dec. 2020 in the journalRemote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation . The squad combined high - resolution images of Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa captured by satellites that orbit 372 mile ( 600 klick ) above Earth ’s surface . This novel proficiency can survey yard of international nautical mile in minutes , which is much fast than the distinctive way conservationists enumerate elephants in low - flying sheet , a cognitive process that can take hour . The researcher say this method could be vital for ascertain the survival of the African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) , a metal money the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies as endangered .

Read more : elephant counted from space using satellites and AI

Acceleration of a finger snap

Using gamy - speed camera and effect sensors , researcher picture out the fast acceleration of the human body : a snatch of the finger . Finger walkover generate maximum rotational speed of 7,800 degree per second and a maximal rotational acceleration of 1.6 million degrees per 2nd squared , according to a subject area write in November in theJournal of the Royal Society Interface . The acceleration of a finger’s breadth snap is three times the acceleration produced by a professional baseball musician ’s arm .

" When I first saw the data , I jumped out of my hot seat , " canvas fourth-year writer Saad Bhamla , an adjunct professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology , read in a statement . “The finger snap occurs in only seven millisecond — more than 20 times fast than the blinking of an eye , which takes more than 150 msec . "

Read more : scientist find the fastest acceleration in the human body

Close-up of a woman’s hands as she is snapping her fingers.

Most precise pi ever

Piis one of the most famousirrational number , which intend it ca n’t be expressed as a common fraction and has an unnumberable number of digits after the decimal point . Researchers in Switzerland have now calculated the most accurate value of pi ever , up to 62.8 trillion denary place . Of naturally , the calculations , which took 108 sidereal day , were n’t done by hand but rather with a supercomputer . But do n’t get too comfortable with this accomplishment . Because pi is irrational , this criminal record can be broken over and over … forever .

Read more : Pi bet to a platter - breaking 62.8 trillion digits

Popularity of your friends

agree to the " friendly relationship paradox , " an musical theme that was first formulated in 1991 , your friends are typically more democratic than you are . But a group of mathematicians came up with a unexampled possibility that they say better account real - world friendships , according to a study published in May in theJournal of Complex Networks . " average are often extremely deceptive or at least can give out to report people ’s experiences , " head author George Cantwell , a postdoctoral chap at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico , previously told Live Science . " Some multitude are less popular than their friends ; others are more so . "

Their new equations show that the friendship paradox tend to be stronger in social internet made up of people with dissimilar level of popularity , such as a high school . If a soul has two acquaintance in the same social electronic connection as a somebody with 100 friends , in general , the friendly relationship paradox will be stronger than in a connection where the most societal individual has 10 friends and the least societal someone has three .

Read more : The ' friendly relationship paradox ' does n’t always explain literal friendly relationship , mathematician say

Pi is an irrational number, meaning it has an infinite number of decimal points.

Black holes

How manyblack holesexist in the population ? These secret object are so dense that not even Inner Light escapes themt . astronomer ca n’t detect all the black holes out there , so they turned to theoretic calculation . In a subject field published in October the preprint databasearXiv , a group of researchers calculated that there might be zillion of small black holes in our cosmic neighborhood , or the most immediate surroundings around the sun , according to NASA . The prominent black holes , supermassive black hollow , are much rarer than the small ones ; each beetleweed unremarkably has only one . All in all , they count on that black holes hold about 1 % of all average matter ( not dark matter ) in the existence .

Read more : How many black holes are there in the creation ?

Walking around the moon

How long would it take to walk aroundthe moon ? The answer is n’t black - and - white ; rather , it depends on a issue of factors , include how tight you walk and how much time you spend walking each sidereal day . It also calculate on whether you take detours to fend off rough topography . At a supposititious walk amphetamine of up to 3.1 mph ( 5 km / h ) , which researcher antecedently calculate in a 2014 subject , it would take about 91 days to walk the 6,786 miles ( 10,921 kilometers ) around the lunation , Live Science account this year . But because it ’s not possible to take the air nonstop for 91 day , the journey would belike take much longer . It ’s more likely that a person would take the air a few hours a day . If a mortal walk at this speed for 4 hours a day , it would take about 547 Earth days , or about 1.5 years , to walk around the moon .

record more : How long would it take to walk around the moon ?

Satellites orbiting Earth

In another clause , Live Science explored the question of how many satellites presently orbit the planet . Since Russia launch Sputnik , the reality ’s first homo - made satellite , in 1957 , thousands of satellites have been lofted . About 10 to 60 were launched annually until the 2010s . Since then , the numbers racket have increased enormously : 1,300 raw satellites were place to low Earth orbit in 2020 and more than 1,400 in 2021 . As of September 2021 , there were around 7,500 dynamic satellites in low Earth orbit , Live Science report .

learn more : How many satellite orbit Earth ?

“Absolute limit” on the human life span

The " absolute limit " on the human spirit span may be 120 to 150 year , according to a study published in May in the journalNature Communications . A group of researchers calculated that limitation using a numerical model , which portend that after 120 to 150 long time , the body would recede its resilience , or the ability to recuperate from unwellness and injury . But if next therapies targeted and pass the physical structure ’s resilience , humans might be capable to survive longer , the researchers allege . The data for the study came from tumid data Set that hold aesculapian data for more than 500,000 people across the U.S. , the U.K. and Russia . The data include stemma tests in which the researchers specifically await for the ratio of two types of disease - contend lily-white blood cells .

Read more : Human life span may have an ' absolute limit ' of 150 years

in the first place published on Live Science .

Friends holding hands above their heads and staring out into the ocean.

Artist’s illustration of a supermassive black hole emitting a jet of energetic particles. Such black holes are also strong emitters of X-ray light, which is apparently reflected off gas and dust in the surrounding accretion disk..

An astronaut walking across the lunar surface with Earth on the horizon.

The number of satellites orbiting the Earth is increasing exponentially.

Close-up image of the hands of a centenarian.

A two paneled image. On the left, a microscope image of the rete ovarii. On the right, an illustration of exoplanet k2-18b

Split image of merging black holes and a woolly mice.

Split image of a "cosmic tornado" and a face depiction from a wooden coffin in Tombos.

Split image of the Martian surface and free-floating atoms.

Split image showing a robot telling lies and a satellite view of north america.

A mosaic in Pompeii and distant asteroids in the solar system.

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

A blurry image of two cloudy orange shapes approaching each other

An illustration of Jupiter showing its magnetic field

A simulation of turbulence between stars that resembles a psychedelic rainbow marbled pattern

This illustration shows a glowing stream of material from a star as it is being devoured by a supermassive black hole in a tidal disruption flare.

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

An abstract illustration of rays of colorful light