This is a note on numbers; my true friends.
To set the context, I read about the set of interesting numbers. It is a wonderful area of knowledge in that to declare a number ‘non interesting’ or ‘the lowest non interesting’ then makes it interesting and changes membership. I love primes, the Real and the Imaginary, I love series especially around compounding or decreasing numbers with a tendance to a limit or the boundless making for great discussion. In my teen I played with the Fractal problems and whilst graphics are largely done with modern computers, there remains some interest for me in how these series “sound” giving notes or frequency values to groups of numbers in the range. They are not scales as such but certain seed value give pleasant tunes, and others give more awkward structures. (yes this depends on taste and style and even you cultural exposure to music and instruments but more on this later…)
Some notable mention to Euler’s Theorem’s such as his work around the Pythagorean Triangle and The Identity of Imaginary Numbers; and to some covert work amongst the Pythagoreans around the bounds of Pi and SQRT(2). The square numbers, The Triangular Numbers and the number Triangle.
So this note is just about my search for my favourite number and also my least with a keen eye out for any non interesting numbers on the way. Spoiler alert I am only going up to 99, any number after is either a prime of expressed as a sum or product of the those listed.
1. the singular, the unity, the lonely.
2. the pair, the double or an even stake.
3. the triangle is a very safe and secure or stable number. the trident is often seen as a symbol of evil so there may be some ‘dark forces’ around this number. we also accept that there is a beginning middle and end to most things and meals.
4. the square, the double double, strong in most instances but nothing without the triangle.
5. the number of fingers on one hand, the smaller part of decimal systems and in currency the smallest physical coin or note.
6. the number of the devil and the smaller part of the imperial system being a half dozen.
7 a lovely prime and feared in the arts industry perhaps from the seven deadly sins but on the upside the number of days in a week.
8. perhaps the best looking single digit, the double double double and a very lucky number.
9. an extension of the three and annoying confused with the six.
10. is the basis for the decimal system.
11. is for remembrance also the repeated us of digits is cool.
12. a dozen and essential if you want eggs or bread.
13. a spooky prime and in many hotels they miss out combinations of this room number and even the entire floor entirely. Ship designs avoid key features on this frame number or deck.
14. two whole weeks and the number between pay days.
15. useful as a quarter of one minute.
16. the double double double double, you get the picture and I’ll revisit it a few more times.
17. sure it is prime but nothing in sport, nothing in music or the arts, this could be a candidate for an un-interesting number. I would suggest though that as I grew up and turned eighteen before all my friends they hated being seventeen and not being allowed into place. Could it be prime, an uninteresting and despised number?
18. the key to the city in most Anglo Saxon based economies.
19. in the same way as we treat age, perhaps our nineteenth year is full of regret for all the things we got wrong in our first year of freedom.
20. a common denomination for currency, for me a twenty dollar note is also a ‘YFS’ or yuppie food stamp in that it cover a sandwich, coffee and sweet treat in most cities.
21. this number is interesting as the product of two young primes being seven and three; all the ya ya about turning eighteen can be repeated here.
22. double digit coolness.
23. primes have a special place in my heart.
24. two dozen and the number of hours in a day.
25. quarter of one hundred.
26. twenty six is the only integer that is one greater than a square (52 + 1) and one less than a cube (33 − 1), not just interesting but awesome, should be a link to it from the taxicab number series.
27. simply three to the power of three is just cool. In decimal, it is the first composite number not divisible by any of its digits and there are exactly 27 straight lines on a smooth cubic surface.
28. the number of days in four weeks, our shortest month and also the time for the surface of the sun to rotate.
29. twenty nine is the sum of three consecutive squares, 22 + 32 + 42.
30. thirty is the sum of the first four squares, which makes it a square pyramidal number.
31. thirty one is a centered pentagonal number.
32. thirty two is the ninth happy number and a double double double double double.
33. double digit coolness.
34. this number is in the Fibonacci sequence and rule thirty four outlines a strange link to every topic and every deep interest group.
35. this is the sum of the first five triangular numbers, making it a tetrahedral number.
36. three dozen or the number of bread rolls for an average family gathering also six squared.
37. this is both a centered hexagonal number and a star number; these series were the catalyst to writing this comment.
38. thirty eight is the sum of the squares of the first three primes and is the largest even number which cannot be written as the sum of two odd composite numbers in a quasi-link to the taxi cab series. The thirty eighth parallel is the pre-Korean War boundary between North Korea and South Korea.
39. the number of the 39 categories of activity prohibited on Shabbat according to Halakha, the number of books in the Old Testament according to Protestant canon and the number of statements on Anglican Church doctrine, Thirty-Nine Articles
40. in the saying “Life begins at forty” and the expression “forty winks”, meaning a short sleep and to keep the world moving in the trademark name of the penetrating oil and water-displacing spray WD-40 (Water Displacement, 40th formula).
41. the sum of two squares, 42 + 52 and the largest lucky number of Euler: the polynomial f(k) = k2 − k + 41 yields primes for all the integers k with 1 ≤ k < 41.
42. the number forty two is, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything,” calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years. unfortunately, no one knows what the question is and I feel that we need to account for inflation and drift the number upwards a little…
43. the number of notes in Harry Partch’s forty three-tone scale of just intonation and it is a centered heptagonal number.
44. double digit coolness.
45. the number of degrees in the angle of half a right angle.
46. a centered triangular number and the total of books in the Old Testament (Catholic version) if the Book of Lamentations is counted as a book separate from the Book of Jeremiah.
47. in my view, the inflation corrected answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
48. the number of hours in two days or a weekend and is the smallest number with exactly ten divisors and “forty eight crash” is a song by Suzi Quatro.
49. forty-nine is the square of seven, that is cool in it’s own right.
50. half a century and the first score that get flashed up as important in a cricket game.
51. a pentagonal number as well as a centered pentagonal number and Area fifty one, a parcel of U.S. military-controlled land in southern Nevada, apparently containing a secret aircraft testing facility. but on a military theme I think the reference to the Mustang is more interesting…
52. the number of cards in a standard deck of playing cards, not counting Jokers or advertisement cards and the approximate number of weeks in a year.
53. the sum of the first 53 primes is 5830, which is divisible by 53, a property shared by only a few other numbers. it is the sixteenth prime number. It is also an Eisenstein prime and a Sophie Germain prime.
54. as Rubik’s Cube has 54 colored squares and the sine of an angle of fifty four degrees is half the golden ratio. there are unique Traditional Japanese symbols of the 54 chapters of the Tale of Genji, a classic work of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu.
55. double digit coolness.
56. the single digits add to eleven.
57. the number of varieties in Heinz Sauces; enough said
58. in MotoGP, this was the bike number of Marco Simoncelli who died in the 2011 Malaysian GP – a number now retired with 34, 65 and 74.
59. a regular icosahedron has 59 stellations
60. the age at which I will most likely cease to give a care, if not attained earlier.
61. The age Anthony ‘Tony ‘ Bourdain was when he passed away.
62. The number of Championship points held by our Dachshund just before our winter pause.
63. a useful number in the for 2n – 1
64. sixty four is the model of the Commodore computer and an early reference to computing power in the name. it is also a double double double double double double.
65. further to my comments from MotoGP earlier.
66. double digit coolness with even more evilness showing up.
67. the sum of 5 consecutive primes and also the 19th prime number.
68. colloquially, to owe someone a thing in return for a favour already performed.
69. a number rarely used in any sport, not sure why…
70. a Pell number and not related to a maligned and currently unencumbered Cardinal.
71. the sum of three consecutive primes 19, 23 and 29.
72. the default DPI resolution for an Apple Macintosh screen.
73. the year after my brother, a great guitarist and family man was born
74. the year I was born.
75. the age limit for Canadian Senators and a good 15 years after I plan to stop caring.
76. if you love phone networks as much as I do, this is the number of ways to connect 6 points with pair wise connections.
77. double digit coolness.
88. double digit coolness and double luckiness.
90. the number of degrees in a right angle.
99. double digit coolness and the last number in my essay. I am sure I have missed both some numbers and some qualities of them, it does not matter, I have proved my love of numbers and that is the important part. I also have an infinite affinity with Pokemon and Skylanders that might be the next topic I tackle.
That’s all from me, for now.
Take care and I hope to chat soon.
Bestest.
D.