What is your favourite number? While it might seem odd that we feel a particular affinity (or even dis-affinity) for a purely impersonal concept, most of us do to some extent or other.
There's also a mathematical quality known as "interesting" numbers. And, by extension, the inverse are "boring" numbers.
As Manon Bischoff also notes in the June 2023 Scientific American, it's ironic because "boring" numbers are actually interesting.
The concept of "interesting" numbers originates from Michael Sloane who, in the 1960s started a catalogue of sequences such as prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7...). Since then, the Handbook of Integer Sequences has grown to more than 360,000 entries.
In case you thought mathematicians aren't creative people, Philippe Guglielmetti came up with the question of whether - or what - numbers don't appear in the handbook.
The answer? 20,067.
Or at least, that's the smallest number that doesn't occur in any catalogued sequence, because there appears to be an infinity of examples beyond that.
At this point the mathematics becomes a little esoteric, but the short version is that, when shown on a graph, distinctive curve-shaped clusters appear.
What this reveals is that the underlying structure of the cosmos has hidden patterns.
Indeed, this became fundamental to the teachings of Pythagoras in 6th century BC, where mathematics became embedded in religion. They believed in the significance of numerology and that numbers explained the nature of the universe.
Surprisingly, many animals can count. Although their abilities are limited compared to humans, it can be quite impressive.
In one experiment, researchers sat a chicken in front of two screens. If they rolled a ball behind the first screen and four balls behind the other, what would the chicken do?
Most often it would walk towards the screen hiding four balls.
Strictly speaking, that's not "counting", but it does show that chickens can pick the difference between one and four balls. That's not bad for a humble chicken, especially considering they were only three days old.
The prize, however, for the real animal maths wizards goes to Tunisian desert ants who appear to use numbers to help them navigate. It seems they do that using a combination of counting steps and the angle of the sun.
What this tells us is that, while many of us struggle with algebra and trigonometry, mathematics is a diverse and interesting subject, not boring.
Listen to the Fuzzy Logic Science Show at 11am every Sunday on 2XX 98.3FM.
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