Sarah + Laura: Sarah's Fun Fact Fridays!! 100th Post!

Welcome to our 100^th post!! We can’t quite believe we are here in what seems like such a short space of time. If you have been following us for awhile – thank you! If you are new to our blog – welcome and we hope you enjoy!

As today is Sarah’s Fun Fact Friday, I thought I would dedicate this post to the number itself. To make sure it covers all bases, you’ll find a bit of science, currency, war, land ownership, language and maths! So much fun. And we're off!!

The words ‘‘hundred’’ and ‘‘century’’ apparently come from the root 'satam' in Sanskrit, which became 'centum' in Latin, 'hekaton' in Greek and 'hunda' in the Germanic languages.

One hundred is:

The basis of percentages (per cent meaning "per hundred" in Latin), with 100% being a full amount
The number of years in a century
The number of tiles in a standard Scrabble set
In Greece, India, Israel and Nepal, 100 is the police telephone number
In Belgium, 100 is the ambulance and firefighter telephone number
In the UK, 100 is the operator telephone number
"The First Hundred Days" is a benchmark of a President of the United States' performance at the beginning of his or her term
In politics, the United States Senate has 100 Senators
It’s the sum of the first ten odd numbers (1+3+5+7+9+11+13+17+19+21=100)
100 signifies completeness, maximum, superiority and has mostly positive connotations
On the Celsius scale, 100 degrees is the boiling temperature of pure water at sea level

One hundred was the Anglo- Saxon unit of measurement for land area. A hundred had enough land to sustain 100 households headed by “a hundred man” who did all the administration, raising troops and leading forces. Hundreds were divided into tithings, each with ten households. The basic unit of land was the “hide”, with enough land for one family. Hundreds still exist in the US state of Delaware; they were introduced by William Penn in 1682 and were used until the Sixties, but now they have no administrative role, though they are still used in real-estate title descriptions. So there you go!

The largest bank note in England is the one hundred million pound note, nicknamed 'The Titan' – well, I guess it is big! It is only used internally at the Bank of England, and there are only 40 in existence. Scotland is the only place in the UK where £100 bank notes are used- that maybe a request for my next birthday- I’ll get all my Scottish family to club together :)

Most of the world's currencies are divided into 100 subunits; for example, one euro is one hundred cents and one pound sterling is one hundred pence.

The U.S. hundred-dollar bill has Benjamin Franklin's portrait; the "Benjamin" is the largest U.S. bill in print. American savings bonds of $100 have Thomas Jefferson's portrait, while American $100 treasury bonds have Andrew Jackson's portrait. So next time you hear 'It's all about the Benjamins!!!' you'll know why! Holla!

This is only applicable in the UK but all Blue Peter badges (it’s a kid’s show in the UK) feature the famous ship logo, created by Tony Hart. Tony, who died earlier this year, was a presenter of kids' art shows and creator of the cult animated Plasticine figure called Morph. He was paid a flat fee of 100 pounds for his ship design that is one of the most recognised designs in the UK.

In a 1987 study, just 100 surnames accounted for 85 per cent of the Chinese population. According to the 1990 census the most common was Li, with over 100 million people: more than the population of Germany. And I though having the most common girl's name in my year was bad!

The atomic number of fermium is 100. Ferium is a synthetic element- a chemical element that is too unstable to occur naturally on Earth, and therefore has to be created artificially.

Back to my school history lessons here but The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) actually lasted 116 years and didn’t acquire its popular name until 1874. It was a series of skirmishes fought between two French families, one of whom claimed the French throne (Valois), while the other claimed both France and England (Plantagenet). The eventual victory of the Valois came at a high price – France’s population was reduced by two-thirds over the period and England was left isolated from the rest of Europe, speaking English rather than French. Can you imagine kinda fighting for that long!?! Crazy.

In religion it’s the Jewish who love the number 100 - there are 100 blasts of the Shofar (horn) heard in the service of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and a religious Jew is expected to utter at least 100 blessings daily.

When a TV series reaches 100 episodes, it is generally considered viable for syndication. (For shows picked up midseason, this point is generally reached during a prime time series' 5th season).

And if that isn’t quite enough we will finish off with 100 in sport:

· The number of yards in an American football field (not including the end zones).
· The number of runs required for a cricket batsman to score a century, a significant milestone.
· The number of points required for a snooker cueist to score a century break, a significant
milestone.
· The record number of points scored in one NBA game by a single player, set by Wilt
Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962
· The minimum distance in yards for a Par 3 on a golf course