Babbage once contacted the poet Alfred Tennyson in response to his poem "The Vision of Sin". Babbage wrote, "In your otherwise beautiful poem, one verse reads,



Every moment dies a man,



Every moment one is born.



... If this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of that of death. I would suggest [that the next version of your poem should read]:



Every moment dies a man,

Every moment 1 1/16 is born.



Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry."

Lovely detail from Doron Swade's book on computer pioneer Charles Babbage (via Wikipedia .)