Rootin’ Around
April 9, 2013 at 1:10 am 5 comments
The digits of today’s date can be concatenated to make the four-digit number 4913, and 4913 = 173. As it turns out, this is the only date in 2013 for which the concatenation of the digits forms a number that has a square, cube, fourth, fifth, or sixth root that is a whole number.
I’m sure there are more useless pieces of trivia, but I can’t think of one right now.
[Update, 4/9/13: Perhaps the following isn’t more useless, but it’s certainly not more useful, either. I failed to mention the trivial numerology contained within today’s date: 4 + 9 = 13.]
In any case, this fact about the cube root of 4913 got me to thinking about some of my favorite things.
My favorite drink:
My favorite highway:
My favorite LeVar Burton movie:
My favorite types of efforts:
My favorite idiom:
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Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: 66, beer, date, grass, LeVar Burton, root.
1.
Joseph | April 10, 2013 at 10:17 pm
I must be an idiot. I don’t get that last one.
2.
venneblock | April 11, 2013 at 1:23 pm
Not an idiot, Joseph. It’s a tough one. I don’t want to just post the answer, as figuring it out is half the fun; so, here’s a hint: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/root.
3.
Joseph | April 12, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Gah. Finally got it.
4.
venneblock | April 12, 2013 at 9:02 pm
Now be honest, Joseph. Just like a good math problem, doesn’t it feel better to figure it out for yourself?
5.
Joseph | April 14, 2013 at 1:10 pm
*sigh*
You win.
So this is what my math students feel like when I force them to work through a problem on their own, rather than me just telling them the answer. 😀