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Weekend


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November 22, 2002

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. What happens to an unpaid debt that swells and swells for 500 years due to compounding interest? Would there be enough money anywhere to pay this off?

    A. The notion was put to the test in 1996 when a New College of Oxford administrator discovered that King Edward IV of England, on July 18, 1461, had borrowed the modern equivalent of $384US from the school, paid back $160 but the remaining $224 was never repaid, say Jeffrey O. Bennett et al. in "Using and Understanding Mathematics."


     
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