Numbers with Personality

 

Numbers with Personality by Alice Major explores the linguistic aspect of numbers to show the impact of  narrative attached to the social relationships and cultural memories related to numbers. The article mentions different emotions attached to different numbers and how they differ in different cultures depending on the historical and linguistic differences. I do no think that this would be worthwhile topic to discuss for an entire class, but is beneficial for the students if mentioned through anecdotes such as Hardy-Ramanujan number 1729. As Hardy has thought previously before his conversation with Ramanujan, it is easy to think that numbers such as 1729 are boring, but by mentioning these anecdotal episodes, it could be an opportunity for the students to take a look at numbers from a different aspect which could pique their interest. Personally, I do not give any personalities to the numbers, I do think that it is interesting to analyze characteristics of numbers and the patterns created by the numbers, but I do not attach emotions to the number.

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