The book received an excellent endorsement from
John Cleese. Have you met him?
John is a passionate conservationist and we did a
show at the opening of the new Dubbo Zoo
accommodation lodges earlier this year. Amazing
place and I thoroughly recommend all Aussies visit
Taronga Western Plains Zoo at last once in their
lives.
Obviously all numbers are scintillating for their
own reasons… But what is your favourite?
Having written a book on the numbers 1 – 100 they’re
like my children and I can’t pick a favourite. But for
mine 7 is probably the most overrated number – if
you ask a large group of people it’s always the most
common favourite number. Nothing wrong with 7 but
I don’t see why it’s always top of the pops.
What is a perfect number?
A number for which the sum of it’s divisors (apart
from the number itself) sum to that number. Huh?
Well take 6; 1 2 and 3 all divide into 6 and 1+2+3 =
6. This doesn't happen often, ie for 10, 1+2=5=8 not
10. When it does happen the number is called perfect.
The first few perfect numbers are 6, 28, 496 and
8,128.
Can you tell us a few interesting facts about
numbers that relate to the world of (a) music (b)
movies (c) art?
a) a concert pedal harp has 47 strings, a piano has 88
keys but not an even number of black and white,
Engine 37 are a metal band from Melbourne b) the
record for most costume changes in a movie goes to
Madonna (85 Evita) destroying the record held by
Liz Taylor (65 – Cleopatra) c) you see the full
spectrum of colours of a rainbow when the sun is
above and behind you making an angle with your
eyes and water drop of 42 degrees
Your book deals with the numbers 1 through 100.
What’s the most interesting number beyond 100
and why?
There are so many but 153 is narcissistic! This means
that it 1 cubed plus 5 cubed plus 3 cubed equals 153.
Same thing happens for 370, 371 and 407. Cool hey.
In our culture there is a great deal of superstition
about the number 13. Do other cultures have
particular numbers that are considered to be lucky
or unlucky?
The Chinese love 8 (the word for 8 sounds like the
word for prosperity or wealth) and many Chinese fear