Fifty-seven is three times nineteen. It has always fascinated me, factoring numbers, so yesterday evening I thought about it for a moment.
Then again, fifty-eight is two times tenty-nine. Strange coincidence, this transition from nineteen to twenty-nine. But understandable: one nineteen of the three available you can split into two times ten, that is if you smuggle in the extra one you get from going from fifty-seven to fifty-eight. Nineteen plus one makes twenty-nine and you only have two left because the other one was split.
Looking at it differently: fifty-seven is sixty minus three times one. Fifty-eight is sixty minus two times one. If you realise what is sixty divided by three, and what is sixty by two, you get the picture.
Fifty-nine is a prime number. So much simpler and quieter.
Life is beautiful.
Copyright © 2012 R. Harmsen. All rights reserved.