{"id":7949,"date":"2024-08-07T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/?p=7949"},"modified":"2025-05-11T19:54:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T23:54:57","slug":"%e2%99%8b%ef%b8%8e-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/life\/%e2%99%8b%ef%b8%8e-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u264b\ufe0e Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have always been fascinated by numbers. There are two from my early childhood that stick out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">45<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I was in elementary school, I was a crossing guard. If you can believe it, they let elementary school kids stand at the crossing for the other kids attending school. I wanted the job because you got this ultra-cool sash that you wore.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"228\" height=\"288\" data-attachment-id=\"7958\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/life\/%e2%99%8b%ef%b8%8e-numbers\/attachment\/crossing\/\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/crossing.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"228,288\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"crossing\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/crossing.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/crossing.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7958\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Respect My Authority!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I remember standing at the corner of Minuteman Causeway and Brevard with my cool crossing guard sash on, helping the other kids who basically ignored us \ud83e\udd23. For whatever reason, I was thinking about the turn of the century, which was still many years off. I did the math and determined I would be 45! I was stunned &#8211; I guess it was the first time I actually wondered what my life would be like as an adult. I know for sure now that whatever happened, I would be 45 at the turn of the century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I thought about this over and over until it actually occurred. At the time, I had gotten married for the second time to a woman with a six-year-old daughter. I didn&#8217;t see that one coming! \ud83d\ude33<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">69<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, I turned 69. It is a unique number in a couple of ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is known as a semi-prime because it is the product of two prime numbers, 3 and 23. Prime numbers have always fascinated me<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" data-attachment-id=\"7955\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/life\/%e2%99%8b%ef%b8%8e-numbers\/attachment\/69-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/69.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"440,276\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"69!\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/69.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/69-300x188.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7955\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/69-300x188.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/69.jpg 440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you multiply 69 by all the individual numbers preceding it (aka factorial), you get the value 1.711224524\u00d710<sup>98<\/sup>. When <span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">electronic calculators came out, they had an upper limit of\u00a010<sup>100\u00a0<\/sup>(also known as a googol). So, if your calculator had a factorial operation, you could get this number to appear. Any number higher than 69 would give you an error.  I remember trying it out on my brand-spanking-new<\/span> TI-56 programmable calculator when I was in engineering school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an image &#8211; well &#8211; I don&#8217;t need to tell you what that means. It is universally known!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-x-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u264b\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was in junior high school riding home from school one afternoon. The junior high school was further away than the old elementary school, and in the afternoon, you always had to fight the strong breezes coming from the ocean to get home. I used to dread it \ud83d\ude06.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Somebody earlier in the day told me the &#8216;naughty&#8217; meaning of 69 \ud83d\ude0d. For whatever reason, I remember riding home that afternoon fighting the hurricane wind and thinking to myself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Why would anybody want to do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim\"><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1007\" height=\"1024\" data-attachment-id=\"7715\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/excellent\/fields-of-corn\/attachment\/fields-of-corn-ii\/\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1878,1910\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Fields of Corn II\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II-1007x1024.jpg\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-7715\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II-1007x1024.jpg\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II-1007x1024.jpg 1007w, http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II-295x300.jpg 295w, http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II-768x781.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II-1510x1536.jpg 1510w, http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II-1200x1220.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fields-of-Corn-II.jpg 1878w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Happy Birthday to Me \ud83d\ude0e<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have always been fascinated by numbers. There are two from my early childhood that stick out. 45 When I was in elementary school, I was a crossing guard. If you can believe it, they let elementary school kids stand at the crossing for the other kids attending school. I wanted the job because you &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/life\/%e2%99%8b%ef%b8%8e-numbers\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;\u264b\ufe0e Numbers&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-7949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-birthday"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/69-2.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7949"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9116,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949\/revisions\/9116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}