QQC 10

Much Ado About Numbers: Chapter 1

“The mysterious Philosopher's Stone the unknown catalyst that was thought to transform base metals into gold and be the elixir of everlasting life - was said to be “one in essence” according to the 17th-century scholar of alchemy William Gratacolle. (However, William also found about a hundred other names for the Philosopher’s Stone, ranging from “the eyes of fishes” to the rather bizzare “belly of a man in the mist,” so it is unlikely that being “one in essence” was terribly helpful in the centuries-long search for the stone.)

I wonder why people thought that the philosopher’s stone existed. “Belly of a man in the mist”? Wut? Where do people come up with this stuff?

“And of course, number one is often used to mean “the best.”  In China, Feng Shui can be improved with the right numbers. The number one is the first of the yang numbers and its strongly linked to growth and prosperity.”

I’ve never heard of 1 being a good number. I’ve learned something new. Eight is a really lucky number but four is not because the word for four and the word for death are pronounced the same way. There are also larger numbers that when you say the numbers one after another they sound like auspicious words like prosperity or happiness for example. 

“Natural numbers are the pigeons of the number world - you see them everywhere you look.” 

I can’t imagine numbers flying around and perching on buildings in major metropolitan areas.

“Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.”

I’m surprised a man said this. XD I would’ve thought that a math witch would have said this. 

“Not surprisingly, it is said that 2,000 years ago, couples in love would exchange talismans and lockets with the numbers 284 and 220 on them, and apparently many marriages have happened between partners who each had perfect numbers for birthdays, horoscopes, heights (or anything else they could think of).”

I think its funny that numbers in the past were such a prominent part of a persons personal life. We don’t really revere numbers as much as we used to.

“Although it seems a little strange 0.99999999... is 1.”

Number  buckets! Throw it in the 1 bucket.