Aliens Planned Woolworths' Locations

Matt Parker, a mathematician writing a guest piece for the Times Online (UK), responds to a bit of archeological "analysis":

I was inspired by articles in the national press on the 5 January 2010 about Mr Tom Brooks’ analysis of 1500 prehistoric sites in the UK that revealed some amazing geometric patterns.

While Tom Brooks looked at prehistoric ruins, Parker applies a similar technique to ancient... Woolworths stores.

Using the locations of the 800 ancient Woolworths stores as my data, I found that they also followed precise geometrical patterns with the same level of accuracy.

For example, three Woolworths sites around Birmingham form an exact equilateral triangle (Wolverhampton, Lichfield and Birmingham stores) and if the base of the triangle is extended, it forms a 173.8 mile line linking the Conway and Luton stores. Despite the 173.8 mile distance involved, the Conway Woolworths store is only 40 feet off the exact line and the Luton site is within 30 feet. All four stores align with an accuracy of 0.05 per cent.

So did aliens help our ancestors plan the locations of these stores with such uncanny accuracy? Maybe. Or maybe not.

No one does dry, snarky humor with such gut-busting effectiveness as the British. Hat tip to Al Frank, who sent me an e-mail with this link.