Life STEM

So, what’s special about 144?

Every now and then there will be some mathematician or a student of math who will present a specific number and either ask or advocate the special characteristics of a number. We all encountered the Pi, Fibonacci sequence, Golden ratio, etc. etc. Today, let’s talk about a less popular, seemingly benign number: 144

Immediately, most of use it’s 12^2. But there’s more to it however. Let’s see…

Yed, 144 is a perfect square.

The sum of its digits, which is 9 is also a perfect square.

The product of its digits (1x4x4=16) is also a perfect square!

Its reverse is also a perfect square (441) meaning 21^2. Whaaat!

Oh, by the way, it’s also a Fibbonacci number and is the square of its Fibbonacci Index (12th position). 144 is the largest square in the Fibonacci sequence (that we know of?).

144 can be written as the sum of two twin primes (71, 73).

It’s divisible by the sum of its digits (9) AND their product (16).

I’m not a mathematician, so I don’t normally dwell on numeric properties, but observing some obvious peculiarity of this number and searching farther on various online resources, found this to be quite unique…special. There are other aspects about 144 that you can research on your own (including inĀ  spiritual and religious contexts), but these properties here, to me are quite enough for a mention.

 

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