“For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.”

– Roger Bacon

Some fun with math (and how to spot tall tales)

A famous basketball player has sex with 10,000 women before he dies.

An Internet guru makes $50,000 a month off $0.99 books.

You think making an extra $3,000 a month is impossible.

These are all common things that I’ve seen or heard. Some things that sound impossible are actually really easy. And others, well they’re just B.S.

Using my five dollar copy of Short-Cut Math (click here to check it out) I’m going to put an end to some common myths.

Is swooping 10,000 girls before you die impossible?

Wilt Chamberlain and a couple other guys, there’s a child actor I think, have bragged about bedding “over 10,000 women.” Assuming that you own a pocket calculator and have been on at least one date, you should be able to realize that this is unlikely. Now consider other factors, like having to play professional sports or act in movies, and you realize that this is downright impossible.

There are days where I’m too busy to eat dinner and take a shower. And I’m not spending eight hours dribbling up and down a court or shooting a major motion picture.

But let’s do the math. You hit puberty late at 18 and are killed by a falling piano at 65. That gives you 47 years of debauchery.

You’d have to hook up with 212 girls a year (I told you math was fun), or 18 a month. And that’s every month for almost 50 years.

Doing a workout routine like Strong Lifts or Starting Strength requires you to hit the gym three times a week, or 12 times a month.

You’d be lifting weights less often than Wilt Chamberlain was swooping girls, while also finding the time for his athletic career and movie roles. Like I said, some claims are just made up.

How many $0.99 eBooks do you have to sell to make $15,000?

A $0.99 eBook earns a 33% royalty on Amazon. You sell 100 copies, they give you $33. If you sold, not made but sold, $15,000 worth of eBooks you’d earn $4,950.

To even make $15,000 for yourself you’d need to sell roughly 60,000 copies. Most titles only sell 250 books in their lifetime.

Moving 60,000 books in a year is impressive. Pushing that many in a month, which some claim to do, is improbable. You’re selling 2,000 copies a day, seven days a week.

I know an author whose books have been reviewed in the New York Times and, to the best of my knowledge, they aren’t selling 2,000 every single day. Selling 60,000 eBooks a month on best dog grooming techniques, or whatever, would allow you to move over one million copies in less than a year and a half.

Is making $100,000 next year a feasible goal?

In Iowa you can buy a massive house, with a private airport, for about $200,000. However, the median household income is about $49,427. To quote the rapper Pusha T, “half a mil in twenties like a billion where I’m from.”

$49,000 is about the same as earning $1,000 a week. Breaking it down further, $200 a day. So to make $100,000 you’d need to pull roughly $400 a day.

If you hustled and worked every day, you’d have to pull $274 every 24 hours. It won’t be the easiest goal out there, but it definitely is doable.

What do millionaires earn hourly?

To earn a million dollars per year, before taxes, you’d have to earn $83,333.34 a month. If you only worker 160 hours a month, which is highly unlikely, you’d make  $520.84 an hour.

There you go. If you want to make a million bucks next year, all you have to do is earn an hourly sum equivalent to what some people pay for a month of rent.

Math is fun

The next time you hear something that sounds fishy, use some basic math. Simple division and multiplication can really save you from getting duped.