July's snippets are ready!

Instead of trying to pick a theme this month, I decided to return to the original purpose of snippets, and just grab random items of interest to Grey Matters readers:

• For those who enjoyed my post on temperature conversion, and the added trick to make it easier, there are simple tricks for other metric conversions, as well.

Nurse Debra Mallory teaches this simple trick for converting pounds to kilograms. Need to work out a metric distance? Here's a quick trick for converting kilometers to miles.

• Last month's snippets focused on hexadecimal numbers. If you want to learn more about those, check out this introduction to hexadecimal numbers. The approach taught on that page is taught quite clearly, so it's easy to grasp.

• Many of the feats I teach on this site require mental arithmetic. If you want to take your mental math to the next level, check out Aaron Maxwell's online book Inner Algebra: How To Do Algebra In Your Head. The whole book is available at that link, and you can also buy a paperback copy on Amazon.

• Just for fun, and completely unrelated to just about anything else I've ever posted on this site, check out this fun and amazing toy, known as Tumble Rings. You can build them yourself, using several sets of key rings. If you're familiar with the toy known as a Jacob's Ladder, you'll recognize the same principle at work here:



That's it for July's snippets. If you have anything you'd like to add, let me hear about it in the comments below!