Thought for the day

Hawkear said:

Today I got a little depressed.
Just had my 79th birthday
Tried hard to think of something special about that number as 79 is a pretty depressingly large and boring number.
The only thing I could think about the number 79 was that it is a prime number.
The last time I had a prime number birthday was 6 years ago and my next will be in 4 years time.
In fact, I have had 23 prime number birthdays during my life.
Given that prime numbers are the only "real" numbers (all others are just combinations of primes), I can say that I have had only 23 "real" birthdays
Now that sounds and makes me feel a lot better even like a youngster.
You could even say I'm a youngster in the "primes" of my life.

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sand surfer said:

a true aussie birthday cake like that geoff ,where are the candles mate

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Hawkear said:

Thanks guys.
Lunch today.
View attachment 15950

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Hawkear said:

Today I got a little depressed.
Just had my 79th birthday
Tried hard to think of something special about that number as 79 is a pretty depressingly large and boring number.
The only thing I could think about the number 79 was that it is a prime number.
The last time I had a prime number birthday was 6 years ago and my next will be in 4 years time.
In fact, I have had 23 prime number birthdays during my life.
Given that prime numbers are the only "real" numbers (all others are just combinations of primes), I can say that I have had only 23 "real" birthdays
Now that sounds and makes me feel a lot better even like a youngster.
You could even say I'm a youngster in the "primes" of my life.

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auriphile said:

What? No candles or wine!

I was looking forward to getting old(er) - you've shattered my dreams of aging disgracefully with multi-day debauched Bacchanalia.

Do you mean that (in a couple of years) when I'm old - and no longer have to care about the opinions of strangers (and family), that I have behave myself?! I was planning on starting my 79th birthday staggering drunk and appropriately attired in my birthday suit with a lampshade on my head.... (are you sure it has to be a meat pie, tomato sauce and a glass of water?).

Cheer up:- your horoscope says this is the best year for gold! (OK - I made that up, but horoscopes are made up, and 79 is the atomic number for Au!); it gets better - 80 is a Harshad number, and an abundant number (maybe next year will also be an even better good year for gold?)

P.S. you're not as old as you feel - you've only had 22 Prime number birthdays, 79 is the 22nd Prime. It's also an emirp in base 10 because the reverse of 79 (97) is also a Prime (extra goodness!).

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Hawkear said:

Thank you Aurifile.
The things you can learn from the wealth of untapped knowledge among our members.
An EMIRP (backwards prime) was a term I had not heard about - a prime whichever way the digits are arranged - 79 or 97.
You are perfectly correct in saying I have dudded myself counting my age in primes as 23 and not just 22 with those being 2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37,41,43,47,53,59,61,67,71,73 and79.
I had counted in 1 as a prime and acknowledge now that it doesn't strictly fit the definition of a prime as being divisible by 1 and one OTHER number. But I also felt it doesn't strictly fit the definition of a non-prime either. That created an issue for me as to what to do with the lonely oddball that is the number 1, so I just sort of welcomed it to the party.
Had also totally forgotten that the atomic number of gold is 79 and had to look up what HARSHAD and ABUNDANT numbers were. As you indicate all the numbers are coming together for my 80th year.
Geez can hardly wait to be given the OK to get out prospecting again after my 8 week cataract surgery care period is up next week. Looking forward (pun intended) to that.

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