Centipedes Have Exactly 100 Legs

Centipedes almost never have exactly 100 legs, and here is the kicker: they cannot. Centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment, and crucially they always have an odd number of leg-bearing segments, so the leg count is always an even number that is twice an odd number, like 30, 42, or 354, but never 100, because 100 would require 50 pairs, and 50 is not odd. Common house centipedes have around 30 legs. Counts across species range from about 30 to over 350. Millipedes do better on their name in spirit, with some species topping 700 legs and one recently discovered Australian species, Eumillipes persephone, becoming the first to genuinely break 1,000, at 1,306. So the centipede is named after a number it is mathematically forbidden from hitting. The millipede, against all odds, finally delivered.