#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.

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]

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.
I somehow missed the post you wrote earlier, so thank you for linkinng back to it! Your life IS super interesting. Stella is currently doing year 7 from home and talking a lot about prime numbers and factors etc so I proudly informed her that I knew what a perfect number was – thanks to you! Might send her that little gaga picture to share with her class too 😉
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Brilliant! Yes the kids stare at it hard, then start reading it out loud, and their delight once they work it out…I have a load of the ‘a kitten dies’ ones, they are hilarious. They’re all aminated so when a kid commits one of the common sins, I just pull it down and hand it to them, shaking my head sadly. Evil is part of the nature of a maths teacher…
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the kitten one is my favourite! Do you know this one? https://xkcd.com/2117/
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oh now THAT’S going on my wall when we go back! As I mainly teach A level, the tone of most of my posters is like that…only the brightest can get them lol
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That one lives on the back of the office door at work 🙂
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My dad is the same (as am I to a certain extent). He was far more excited about turning 49 than 50, and I’m sure his house door number (64) played a part in the decision to buy it. I have a colleague who once asked me what my favourite proof was (infinite primes BTW). I often wish I had a job with more maths in it.
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it can be geekily satisfying…just some of the kids ruin the fun lol
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