The Beauty of Small Natural Numbers

Apr. 13, 2021
Musician, senior software engineer, autistic person, and autistic parent - not necessarily in 𝓭𝓲𝓼 𝓸𝓻𝓭𝓮𝓻

Glider

There’s something beautiful about small natural numbers, mainly about their relation to the human psyché.

I’m taking zero out, ’cause, even some says zero is natural, natural numbers are countable; I challenge you to count zero.

1 (one) is the unit, the origin. Without one there’s no one, everything starts with one; the first anything.

2 (two) is one plus one, and this simple operation is very meaningful:

If you got a problem, you solve that problem; but if you got two problems, you’re obliged to generalise the solution for the first time.

Two is the first prime, the first even – the only even prime. The pair.

3 (three) is two plus one, and that’s meaningful too: three is the result of the simpliest operation (3 = 2 + 1) between the simpliest numbers. It’s the offspring, the odd one after one:

4 (Four) is the first square after one, representing the square idea itself.

Four equals to the product of its own isometric sum elements (2 + 2 = 2 × 2). By the way: 4 = 2 + 2 = 2 × 2 = 2²

5 (five) is the number of elements of the smallest meaningful field. It’s the only untouchable odd number.

6 (six) is the first number that is neither a square not a prime number; the first perfect number. The hexagon has edges of the same size of its radio, making it the perfect natural bidimensional form.

7 (seven) is the only Mersenne safe prime, highly associated to luck in the Judeo-Christian culture, but not only.

8 (eight) the first cube after one, representing the 3-dimensionality itself. The only natural perfect power that’s one less than another perfect power.

Sphenic numbers have eight divisors.

Have you gotten any interesting natural number fact?


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