A miscalculation at a routine health screening presents a tantalizing mathematical mystery.
Here is an actual thing that happened yesterday at LabCorp, where I went for a routine biometric screening for health insurance purposes.
Tech: How tall are you?
Me: Five-eleven.
Tech takes out phone, taps a while at the screen, writes a number on the form, then goes out of room. Me looks at the form. Me's height is written as 61.3. Tech returns to room.
Me: Is that supposed to be in inches?
Tech: What?
Me: My height.
Tech: It is.
Me: Five-eleven is 71 inches.
Tech: No, it's not.
Me: Yes, it is. Five times twelve is 60, plus eleven is 71.
Tech. Oh. [pause] I timesed by eleven.
Me drives self crazy trying to figure out how multiplying any reasonable operand by eleven yields 61.3, must be restrained.
Update: A Facebook friend points out that 5.11 x 12 = 61.32. Mystery ... solved?