Nobody thinks about food 24/7. Times you might not think about food include:
The topic of this post is: numbers I do and don't like. While I don't buy into new-age fortune-telling enterprises like numerology, certain numbers do appeal to me, while others just don't. Like colours, or family members, or... FOOD.
I distrust prime numbers. I feel their lack of factors makes them somewhat arrogant. Additionally, who wants to split 17 spring rolls between any number of people besides 17?
I like numbers which are multiples of three. Perhaps stemming from my upbringing in a family containing only my mother, my father, and myself, I have always found it easy to divide things by three. And if you're two people just cut one in half.
Even numbers (multiples of two) are acceptable, but even MORE acceptable when they are also multiples of 12. Perhaps because in primary school, learning your 12 times table was something of an achievement. Therefore, numbers like 36, 48, 60 and 72 convey a sense of intellectual superiority.
I approve of square numbers, for similar reasons. 25, 49, 64, 144... Hells yeah, I got an education.
Multiples of 5 (and 10) are definitely superb. No explanation needed here.
Multiples of 7 and 8 not so much. As a kid, I was probably more concerned with airing my knowledge of my 9 and 12 times tables to focus on 7 and 8, so I'm not always entirely clear what multiples of 7 and 8 actually are. Though I do know that 7 multiplied by 8 gives us 56, which seems to be a nice, solid, number.
And decimals, fractions and percentages... well, they are RIGHT OUT. Perhaps I should've been clearer about this. I am talking about integers. Positive integers. As someone who elected to NOT study maths in high school, decimals and all related abominations completely elude me.
- When you're not Asian
- When you're watching a colonoscopy on TV
- When you're delivering a baby
Otherwise, whether you're sitting an exam, donating blood, or having sex, it's perfectly normal to think about food. Sometimes even necessary.
To extend the metaphor, I might call this post the entree, but there is quite a marked lack of appetizing food on offer, so this is probably the stage where you choose which restaurant you'd like to eat at. Which, if you're like me, can take upwards of one hour.
The topic of this post is: numbers I do and don't like. While I don't buy into new-age fortune-telling enterprises like numerology, certain numbers do appeal to me, while others just don't. Like colours, or family members, or... FOOD.
I distrust prime numbers. I feel their lack of factors makes them somewhat arrogant. Additionally, who wants to split 17 spring rolls between any number of people besides 17?
I like numbers which are multiples of three. Perhaps stemming from my upbringing in a family containing only my mother, my father, and myself, I have always found it easy to divide things by three. And if you're two people just cut one in half.
Even numbers (multiples of two) are acceptable, but even MORE acceptable when they are also multiples of 12. Perhaps because in primary school, learning your 12 times table was something of an achievement. Therefore, numbers like 36, 48, 60 and 72 convey a sense of intellectual superiority.
I approve of square numbers, for similar reasons. 25, 49, 64, 144... Hells yeah, I got an education.
Multiples of 5 (and 10) are definitely superb. No explanation needed here.
Multiples of 7 and 8 not so much. As a kid, I was probably more concerned with airing my knowledge of my 9 and 12 times tables to focus on 7 and 8, so I'm not always entirely clear what multiples of 7 and 8 actually are. Though I do know that 7 multiplied by 8 gives us 56, which seems to be a nice, solid, number.
And decimals, fractions and percentages... well, they are RIGHT OUT. Perhaps I should've been clearer about this. I am talking about integers. Positive integers. As someone who elected to NOT study maths in high school, decimals and all related abominations completely elude me.
Stay tuned for the entree.
Hahaha I really enjoyed reading this post! I do agree with what you said about Asians...we love our food! My family is really into Feng Shui (particularly Mum) and the numbers you should be careful of are four or thirteen (1+3=4) is not good.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Multiples of 9 are always easy to remember because you can do them with your hands.
hehe! i liked this one too, you hilarious creature.
ReplyDeleteand yes, when non-asians think about food all the time, they are believed to have eating disorders :P
ps - multiples of 7: 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70
multiples of 8: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 80
etc.
Wow, I can't believe you didn't say it. So I'm going to have too because it is my favourite number:
ReplyDeletePi
It is an irrational number. It never ends. Now I'm going to mess with you:
All computer language is in binary (zeros and ones: on or off). So all computer programs ever written and ever going to be written exist within Pi. That means windows and Mac and Linux and UNIX are all connected and within Pi. The internet exists within Pi. What I've just written exists within Pi.
I heart Pi.
Especially Apple Pi.
Thanks for the comments guys! Very encouraging, especially for my first post!
ReplyDeleteI agree Rosalie, my mum also thinks 4 is an inauspicious number. I think it's because the word for 4 in Chinese sounds very close to the word for death. The word for 8, on the other hand, sounds close to the word for wealth or prosperity, so that's considered the luckiest number ever! (If you ever see a car with a number plate like GRL-888) it's probably an Asian!
And Thomas, while I have a pronounced dislike for irrational numbers, I too must make an exception for Pi. I love circles. There's a Chinese fable about an emperor who was looking for a suitor for his daughter, but he loved his daughter so much that nobody was good enough unless he was perfect. The emperor's test to see who was perfect enough for his daughter was whoever could draw or create a perfect circle.
Gillian, those multiples of 7 and 8 don't immediately spring to mind, I must say. I know them if I think about it, just like I know my left and right if I think about it, but I like numbers whose factors are immediately recognisable. And yes, I should work on my left-right recognition problem. You would know, having been on the receiving end of my superb navigation directions! "Turn right here... I mean LEFT!!"
And I was just talking about binary the other day... is a bit (which I understand to mean 'binary digit') either 0 or 1? And a byte, I've been led to believe, is 8 bits. So a byte might be 01011101 or something along those lines? Then a kilobyte would be 1000 (or 1024, to be picky) of those bytes? I feel I don't understand this very well.
I conclude that numbers in general are evil.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, a bit is either 0 or 1, digitally. but physically it is either whether the signal is on or off (so what we see as "0" is off and "1" is on)
So it basically means that each column of Base 2 is either on or off. So the first column (from the right) is 1, 2nd column is 2, then 4, 8, 16, etc.
And it's 1024 according to your computer because everything is calculated in base 2. Companies just calculate space as 1000 bytes so that it looks bigger than it actually is.
Oh, and i would also like to point out a conundrum in your post, as by discussing the lack of food discussion in your post you actually discussed food, and therefore the initial discussion was void, in which case your post would not contain a discussion about food and the discussion would then be valid again... you can see the circle we go in here...
ReplyDelete