science

Numerama

Numerama is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Numerama rather than just read about it. In short: Numerama (formerly Ratiatum) is a French language news website that focuses on digital and internet technology. It was founded in April 2002 by Guillaume Champeau and was published by his company PressTIC until 2015, when it was bought by Humanoid.

Key takeaways

Numerama belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Numerama to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Numerama from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Numerama (formerly Ratiatum) is a French language news website that focuses on digital and internet technology. It was founded in April 2002 by Guillaume Champeau and was published by his company PressTIC until 2015, when it was bought by Humanoid. In September 2011, Numerama was ranked the 10th most social pure play site on Facebook.

History Guillaume Champeau started the site in April 2002 as a blog about peer-to-peer file sharing, the culture industry, and related economic and legal issues. He named it Ratiatum for the Roman settlement on the site of the city of Rezé, where he grew up, and renamed it to Numerama in 2008. Champeau moved to Canada after qualifying as a lawyer, but later chose to leave the law and remained the site's editor-in-chief until 2016. In October 2015, Champeau and his business partners, Guillaume Cavaille and Erwan Delahaye, sold PressTIC, the company that published Numerama, to the French online media company Humanoid. In October 2015, while still under Champeau's editorship, it was redesigned and underwent editorial changes as one of the Humanoid brands. A total redesign was announced in December 2021, along with the introduction of paid subscriptions that would permit an ad-free experience and more opportunities for interaction.

Scope The site evolved to have a broader focus, which led Champeau to rename it to Numerama. It analyzes the interactions between digital and Internet business models, the practices of users, and their legal framework. It often takes a critical stance, because it champions the principles of the free sharing culture, network neutrality, freedom of expression, and respect for online privacy. For example, in 2008 it appealed to site users to make videos arguing the case against the HADOPI law. In its 2015 refocusing by Humanoid, Numerama's editorial scope was further broadened to include pop culture, the future of transportation, and cyberwarfare; sub-sections with their own social media accounts devoted to cars (Vroom) and cyberwarfare (Cyberguerre) were launched in October and November 2018.

Ratiatum Magazin At the end of 2004, Ratiatum launched a monthly magazine called Ratiatum Magazin, as a paper complement to the website. The magazine was discontinued after issue 2 because the publisher Mediastone filed for bankruptcy.

Audience In September 2011, Numerama was ranked by Le Journal du Net2 the 10th most social pure play site on Facebook. In fall 2015 it had 466,000 unique visitors per month; in February 2019, Humanoid reported that the site had 2 million unique visitors per month; by December 2021, 7–10 million.

References

External links Official site

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Numerama

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Numerama claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Numerama before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Numerama ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Numerama

In research: Numerama appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Numerama in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Numerama is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2002 establishments in France, French news websites, Technology websites, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Numerama outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Numerama in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Numerama means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Numerama out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Numerama in simple terms?

Why does Numerama matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Numerama?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Numerama.