Solved cryptogram
Two people in London have exactly the same number of hairs, and you can prove it by counting.
Mathematics Facts, sourced to Wolfram MathWorld.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 74 letters over 22 different ones, graded hard.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
No head carries much beyond a hundred and fifty thousand hairs, and London holds several million people. If you had more pigeons than holes, two pigeons share a hole. That is the entire argument, and it is a proof rather than a guess. It also names nobody. This is the flavor of mathematics that can tell you something certainly exists while giving you no way at all to find it.
The claim comes from Wolfram MathWorld.
- SourceWolfram MathWorld
- CollectionMathematics Facts
- Difficultyhard
- Length74 letters, 22 of them different
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