Tuesday, 27 September 2011

GOOGLE's 13th Birthday

Today is Google's 13th birthday. How many QI facts do you know about the number 13?

How about this one to get you started -

13 (along with 5 and 563) is one of only three known Wilson primes. Named after English mathematician John Wilson, this is a prime number p such that p2 divides (p − 1)! + 1, where "!" denotes the factorial function (ie. 13x12x11x10 ...x1).

i.e. (13-1)! + 1 / (13x13) is an integer

12! + 1 / 169 = 479001601 / 169 = 2834329

Try to come up with a list of interesting facts without using Wikipedia!

2 comments:

  1. Sometimes Mr Marlow your fascination with numbers and what you find interesting amazes even me. What is even more disturbing is that referring to yourself in the 3rd person is a definite sign of madness!!

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  2. Here are my answers (and no I didn't look at Wikipedia!)

    13 is a prime number
    13 is an odd number
    13 is when you become a teenager
    In most places 13 is considered unlucky, although the Italians would disagree
    13 squared is a 169
    Square root of 13 is irrational
    13 cards in a suit
    5, 12, 13 is a Pythagorean triple
    13 players on a rugby league team
    13 is a Fibonacci number (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ...)

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Thank you for taking the time to comment on the Math Bully Blog. Mr Marlow