Six of the best?

#MayWriteABit 2020

A day late again, I’ll get the hang of this eventually.

6 is a perfect number which means that it is equal to the sum of its factors [excluding itself].  This is the kind of nonsense I like.  It’s  a maths teacher thing.

This is on my classroom wall…

So.  Back in January I wrote about my upcoming birthday, when I turn 60.  It’s a big ‘un!  I broke down my life into decades, and wrote about them.  It seemed to be quite a popular post, it certainly got  a lot of comments!

Now the birthday is exactly 6 weeks away, at the time of writing, so there’s another 6.  I have [if asked] always said that 6 is my lucky number, merely because it pleased my mathematical heart, even at a very early age, that my birthdate consists of numbers all divisible by 6.

18.6.60

Yes, yes, I’m a saddo- I do notice such things about numbers now and then, but I hasten to add I’m not in the slightest bit taken in by numerology.  Just interesting numbers make me geek out  a bit.  And I once read an assertion that ALL numbers are interesting.  If you find one that isn’t, that in itself is an interesting fact.  [The interesting numbers paradox, attributed to a conversation between mathematicians G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan]

This is also on my classroom wall.  I’m sorry

At our wedding, it occurred to me that our ages were interesting, so I made a mini geek speech about it.  My wife only face-palmed a little, which shows what a gem she is! [If you’re interested, we married in August after both our birthdays for the year, and she is 6 years younger than me.  This took place 7 years ago [dammit, not a six] so were 53 and 47.  Both in our prime, with a sum which is a perfect square.  This made me very happy! I apologise lol]

Right now I have nothing more to add on sixes, and should in any case be writing my piece for the seventh, so I will leave it at that.  You might like to flick back to read [or re-read] the one about my 6 decades though.