i heard someone say once (many times) that theres a joke that ends with some punchline that claims "every number is interesting" (yeah it was jan Misali) and while i don't particularly care about that joke i think it might be fun to go through every counting number and say why they're interesting (and maybe some non counting numbers as bonuses). Also like im not particularly a mathimatician so tell me if im wrong about something and i won't know all of the cool properties numbers have so tell me those too. Also someone else has probably done this already but i will not peek on purpose.(thats a lie i peeked at wikipedia a lot)
1
You know it and you love it, this number is the only counting number that is neither prime nor composite, as well as holding many other unique properties, such as being the multiplicative identity.
2
Basically as famous as one, this number is the prime number with the lowest value, and is useful in fields ranging from computer science to biology.
3
Yeah baby it's number three it's the first odd prime number which makes it feel like the first prime number and is also useful when you need something bigger than two but not too big.
4
Aw yeah it's four, the first composite number, and to get away from the whole prime/composite thing it is also the first square of a different counting number we have seen.
5
I dont want to say "five is half of ten" because ten isnt that good, so five is interesting because its place in the fibonacci sequence is the same as its value.
6
Six is the first non-square composite. I believe we will soon talk about prime and composite numbers way less
7
A classic. Clearly and obviously prime but without the clutter that larger primes find themselves in. Additionally, it is used in the conversion from weeks to days and the other way. Oh yeah also this guy ate nine.
8
The first cube of a different counting number so far.
9
Nine is great it's basically three squared but it also feels very important. I feel like i could meet nine and we would hang out.
10
Nobody loves ten but everybody knows about it. As the base for the most popular counting system in the world, it's bound to have it's detractors, and some of them are me. It's too mainstream all of the cool kids like base six.
11
This is a decimal-centric property but it is the first two digit number to have the same digit in both places which feels nice. It feels like no matter the shape of the slot you made it would be unable to fit. Friendly.
12
yeah okay it's twelve. If ten is taylor swift then twelve is my chemical romance. It's less mainstream but it's still very popular, but base twelve probably has an okay reason. It's a highly composite number at a size comfortable for decimal users, so like okay. It feels like it doesn't have as much personality as some other numbers but i don't know if thats what you want for a base.
13
hehe thirteen. In some cultures thirteen is considered an unlucky number to an extent that it is excluded from the pool of building floor numbers. It's a goofy little prime similar to a black cat.
14
when i was younger i used to like the multiples of seven, and fourteen is a member of that set. I checked wikipedia and it says that fourteen is the first member of the first cluster of two discrete semiprimes which means that it is the product of two and seven (prime numbers) and fifteen is the product of three and five (prime numbers). Yay for fourteen!!
15
A classic, hardworking number. Five plays an important role in the decimal ecosystem, and three always knows what it's doing. I guess this is also the second member of the first cluster of two discrete semiprimes but it's less interesting the second time. It's the magic consonant of the unique order three normal magic square, which is kinda cool.
That was an image of a magic square to explain it better than i can. Try adding up any row or column or diagonal.
16
Oh here it is. Because of its existance as two to the fourth power, sixteen is used as the maximum amount of snowballs and ender pearls in a single stack in minecraft.
17
Well there it is. Seventeen is kind of like a sunset if it was slightly wrong. Wikipedia says it's a sexy prime twice because it is six away from two other primes. (Eleven and twenty three)
18
According to wikipedia, eighteen is a semiperfect number because some of its factors (three, six, nine) add up to it. We missed calling six a perfect number. A semiperfect number actually is a good name for the vibes that eighteen gives off too. It feels a lot like it's almost something, but it fails to be.
19
Ninteen seems like a number that you would remember seeing randomly at like an arcade or something. I dont remember seeing the number ninteen everywhere but it feels like I would. According to wikipedia, the sum of the squares of the first ninteen primes is divisible by ninteen, so that's something for it.