Identity and our favourite number using Mathematics - Richard Jones

(Posted on 06/01/20)

Last half term our Transdisciplinary theme was identity so in Maths we decided to look at how can we identify ourselves using Mathematics.

On a basic level we are all made up of data which could be split into two categories - Qualitative data (descriptive data) such as eye colour, hair colour or your favourite football team. Quantitative data (that you can count or measure) such as your height, weight or shoe size. If you think about it, pretty much everything about us and our surroundings is data and hence mathematics!

Each of our pupils then had to create a short video describing their identity using mathematics.

Another way we could identify ourselves using numbers is our favourite number….. yes for some reason most of us have one. We had great fun researching our favourite numbers and what makes them so great……here are a few favourites….

The most popular favourite number is 7

Why is that……could it be for one of these reasons…

7 is "arithmetically unique". It is the only number below 10 that you can't multiply or divide and keep within group. For example, 5 you can multiply by 2 to get 10 (still within the 1-10 group), 6 and 8 you can divide by 2.

7 also shows up a lot in human culture. We have seven deadly sins, and seven wonders of the world. Not to mention the 7 ….pillars of wisdom, seas, dwarves, days in the week and colours of the rainbow.

This might be because when these things came about there were celestial bodies visible in the sky (the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn).

13 is unlucky for some right?

Not for Cicadas.Cicadas incubate underground for long periods of time – 13 or 17 years – before coming out to mate. 13 and 17 are both prime numbers. It's thought cicadas ended up in these prime number life-cycles because it meant they came into contact with predators on more round numbered life-cycles less often.

Here are some other great maths facts about 13…

A prime number whose digits are the first 2 odd numbers 1 and 3.
An absolute prime number (or permutable prime number): both numbers 13 and 31 are prime or in fact, absolute prime.
Reversible numbers and their squares: 13²= 169 and 31²= 961 = 31²
The 13^thprime number is 41, sum of all prime numbers not greater than 13: 41 = 2+3+5+7+11+13.

Daryl Goodwin, our Assistant Principal, really likes the number 73 so we asked him why?

“The best number is 73. 73 is the 21st prime number. Its mirror, 37, is the 12th and its mirror, 21, is the product of multiplying 7 and 3... and in binary 73 is a palindrome, 1001001, which backwards is 1001001”

I know what you are thinking... pretty cool right.

What is your favourite number and why?