Blogging on Mayan and other numbers

" Each of the positive integers was one of his personal friends" 

#1729 = the smallest number representable in two ways as a sum of the two cubes

If we think deeply about any numbers we see in life, we are likely able to link them to something personal. The Hardy-Ramanujan number 1729 was only a taxicab number which would probably have no meaning to anyone other than the driver. However, Hardy and Ramanujan managed to think deep and came up a special property for this number. Through their finding, more people would know that 1729 is the smallest number that can be represented in two ways as a sum of the two cubes. Linking to Major's concept on how human make association to numbers and their personal experience, numbers can be more than just numbers, they can have their special meanings to those who would actually take time to learn about them.

• Is this something that you might want to introduce to your secondary math students? Why or why not? If you would use these ideas in your math class, how might you do so?

Yes, I find this topic quite interesting to get students thinking about math and how math is always around us. Math teachers often hear their students ask "When do I ever get to use this in life". This would be an interesting topic to discuss with students. I can conduct a conversation on how numbers play role in different parts in arts, cultures, and our in everyday lives. I can ask students to think about any number and explain to the class how it is special to them. This activity would really get students thinking about how math is everywhere. 

• Do numbers have particular personalities for you? Why, how, or why not? What about letters of the alphabet, days of the week, months of the year, etc.?

For those who have seen me in real life, no one would have guessed that I am a math major and math teacher. To be honest, I don’t consider myself as a math person because I don't have the math brain that is able to connect everything to math right away. Sometimes I would ask myself, "why did I study math?  How did I up end up with a math degree and I am going to math teacher soon?" Everything seems so unreal. 

 I have told the class in the beginning of the school year that my birthday happens to coincide with the well-known mathematical constant pi. Sometimes I wonder if this is some kind of hint or fate that in my life, I will have to deal with math. (*laugh*) It is probably meant to be that I will have to deal with math for my life (at least part of my life) because I was born on pi day? I really don’t have an answer to that, but for sure the number 314 has a meaning to me. But people don’t see it in me because they don’t see me as a mathematical person. Even I don’t see myself as a mathematical person, but one thing I know is that I was willing to learn and I have worked hard for that math degree.  I will definitely keep up that spirit for future challenges.