Mathematics and the flag of the United States of America
Behind the flag of the United States are some interesting facts related to Math that I want to share with you today (I have heard this story from my math teacher at school and maybe I want to share and expand it more in this-week blog):
In 1959, there were 48 states in the USA, and because 48 = 6 x 8 so it was easy to arrange 48 stars into 6 rows, each had 8 stars.
In 1959, Alaska joined the United States, so there are 49 stars, which was equal to 7 x 7, so they arranged the stars into 7 rows, each with 7 stars.
In 1960, Hawaii joined the United States and again they had to rearrange all the stars. However, 50 is not a direct multiplication of any 2 close numbers so they have thought of an idea of alternatively arranging the number of stars. An easier way to understand is 50 = 4x5 + 5x6.
As 6 stars have 5 spaces, they can put the 5 stars under the 5 spaces, which makes it look aesthetic.
So what if there are 51 states? 51=3x17 which does not make the flag look aesthetic if we only put 3 rows. There are maybe some “must” aesthetic requirements:
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The difference in number of stars between each row should not exceed 1.
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The difference between “even rows” and “odd rows” must not exceed 1.
The “star” problem becomes a math problem (this was our homework actually, but I have solved it this way):
