Wednesday, March 11, 2015

March 11 - numbers I like, like 11!

Eleven (11) has always been my favorite number!
It is my birthday number, October 11th.
I like that it is a double number, fun to write - one(1), one(1).
When I glance at a digital clock and it reads 3:11 or 7:11 or  9:11, I smile.
When it reads 11:11, I feel a bigger sense of happiness.
I don't know why.

I could not sleep last night so I saw 3:11am on my phone and finally at 4:11am, I just got up.
I started reading and commenting on slices. My friend ended hers by saying rather wisely:
"I imagine what should be..." This simple line made me smile, just like seeing 5:11 makes me smile!

I am reading aloud Rain, Reign by Ann Martin to my student (highly recommend it!!) and the main character, Rose, loves prime numbers. In the chapter yesterday, she was adding up what words were worth when A=1 and Z=26. So, this morning in my restless state, I thought more about numbers, something I don't spend much time thinking about other than happily spying my favorite number.

I took time to add up what SHOULD is worth. It equals 79. I will admit that I don't have prime numbers memoried but I googled a list and 79 is a prime number. Rose from our book would like this! 79, Google told me, is also the atomic number of gold. This symbolism is not lost on me.

The list also reminded me that 11 is a prime number. On the 11 Wikipedia page it states,  "If a number is divisible by 11, reversing its digits will result in another multiple of 11. As long as no two adjacent digits of a number added together exceed 9, then multiplying the number by 11, reversing the digits of the product, and dividing that new number by 11, will yield a number that is the reverse of the original number. (For example: 142,312 x 11 = 1,565,432. 2,345,651 / 11 = 213,241.) Really? Really? Who thinks up things like this??

Maybe a mathematician who also couldn't sleep one night!

4 comments:

  1. I'm amazed that you were awake enough at that early hour to understand all that math! Isn't it funny how we attach meaning to random things like numbers? (My number is 3.) Just goes to show that we seem to be continually in search of meaning and connection.

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  2. My number is 52. It is amazing how much fun we can have with numbers and all the "tricks" people have taken the time to discover when it comes to numbers. Hope you sleep well tonight.

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  3. Wow! This is interesting I made connections to 11 yesterday-and it was crazy 11 things on the 11th and my post was 11th on twtblog

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  4. This post made me smile. I almost wrote about 11. I'm always excited when we hit double digits for slicing, and then 11, 22, and finally the joy of seeing 31! Our Mock Newbery book club read Rain Reign, and I found myself thinking more about numbers too.

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