Ramanujan’s constant (sort of):

What number
 163
is one less than itself
when one is divided by it? e — an ‘Almost Integer’.

61-(8+8+8+8+8) 10 999999
+ 593499
= is (probably) the smallest

61-(8+8+8+8+8) megaprime
(a prime with at least 1 million digits)
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 Unprimeable
(or prime-proof) numbers
How many are numbers that cannot be made prime
triangles? by changing a single digit.
What is the
smallest unprimeable
number?

There are 666 integers T is the first, fourth, eleventh,

less than 666 sixteenth, twenty-fourth, …

letter in this sentence.
that have no common factors
1, 4, 11, 16, 24, …
with 666
(other than 1)
Aronson’s Sequence.
(The 11,281,384,554th letter in the sentence is the sentence’s billionth T.)
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 4 !  3 !  2 !  1!
There are eighteen days
syllables in this sentence,
=
and eight-squared-plus-five
letters. 6 !  5 !  4 !  3 !  2 !  1!
seconds

28 is perfect because it is equal to the

sum of its proper factors
203 + 203 + 203
2 0 3
(1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28).

is prime
285 is anti-perfect because it is equal
to the sum of its proper factors reversed
(1 + 3 + 5 + 51 + 91 + 75 + 59 = 285).
Find another anti-perfect number.
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206 is the smallest number
whose English name contains
all five vowels exactly once:
two hundred and six
It is not knowledge, but the act
of learning, not possession but
the act of getting there, which
grants the greatest enjoyment.
— Carl Friedrich Gauss (1808).
In a letter to Farkas Wolfgan Bolyai
(2 September 1808).

Make these
2127 − 1 = 170,141,183, 460, 1 1 1 = 6
equations true 2 2 2 = 6
= 469, 231, 731, 687, using any 3 3 3 = 6
arithmetic 4 4 4 = 6
= 303, 715, 884,105, 727 operation, 5 5 5 = 6
including 6 6 6 = 6
is the largest prime found by hand. 7 7 7 = 6
+ –   √ ! 8 8 8 = 6
(It was found in 1876 by Edouard Lucas,
after 29 years of testing.) etc. 9 9 9 = 6
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 Can you make: There is no
Using any 1 using one one number larger
arithmetic 2 using two twos 1  327 = 327 than 327 that
operations, 3 using three threes when multiplied by
e.g. +, –, , , !, 4 using four fours 2  327 = 654 1, 2 and 3 results
5 using five fives in numbers that
exponentiation,
etc…
6 using six sixes
7 using seven sevens
3  327 = 981 together contain
every digit from
8 using eight eights… 1-9.

A book has 1257 digits

How many integers
in its page numbers.
between 1 and 1000
How many pages does
contain a 3?
the book have?
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The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, By cutting one cake at a time,
what is the least number of cuts required
the sense of being more than Man, to share these 3 cakes equally
which is the touchstone of the highest among 4 people?
excellence, is to be found in
mathematics as surely as poetry.
— Bertrand Russell (1917).
Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, p60.

A good prime is a prime number Wrong

whose square is greater than the product of any
but right. 16 1
=
two primes at the same number of positions
before and after it in the sequence of primes.
Why?
For example, 5 is a good prime
because 52 > 3  7 and 52 > 2  11.
There are exactly four
such 2-digit ‘anomalous
cancellations’; find them.
64 4
What is the next good prime? Can you find a 3-digit one?
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In mathematics the art of
proposing a question must How can you measure 9 minutes
be held of higher value than with only one 4-minute hourglass
solving it. and one 7-minute hourglass?
— Georg Cantor (1867).
De aequationibus secundi gradus indeterminatis.

What is the
probability that you
What can you say make all the right
about the area decisions?
of the unshaded (Assume you never
corner? need to turn back.)

Maze generated via

www.mazegenerator.net/
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Wrong
but right.
Why?
There are exactly four such
2-digit ‘anomalous
cancellations’; find them.
Can you find a 3-digit one?
1, 2, ?, 10, 17, ?, 26,...
A number whose digits sum to
19 1 the sum of the digits of its
= distinct prime factors is known
95 5 as a hoax number.
Find the smallest hoax number.
Mathematicians have tried in vain to this
day to discover some order in the
sequence of prime numbers, and we have
reason to believe that it is a mystery into
which the human mind will never
penetrate.
— Leonhard Euler (1707-1783).
in G. Simmons, Calculus Gems, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1992.
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 Find the number that,
when written in English
2 11 1 6 ?
    = 100 in alphabetical order,
3 20 9 11 15
contains all digits 0-9
once.

Take a random multiple of 3… 78

The mathematician does not study
Split the number into its digits… 7 and 8
pure mathematics because it is useful;
Take the sum of their cubes… 73 + 83 = 855
he studies it because he delights in it
Go back to the second step… 8 and 5 and 5
and he delights in it
and repeat… 33 + 53 + 13 = 762
because it is beautiful.
… …
— Henri Poincare (1854-1912).
Why does what happens Why does
In Science et méthode, 1908, p22.
happen? what
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 A perfect number is a number equal to the sum
Visual proof that of its proper factors, e.g. 6, because the proper
(n − 1)2 + ( 2n − 1) = n 2 factors of 6 are 1, 2 and 3, and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.
e.g. A sublime number is a number that has a perfect
= ( 8 − 1) + ( 2  8 ) − 1
2

number of factors that sum to another perfect

= 82 −8 − 8 +1 +16 −1
= 82
number.
We have only found two sublime numbers, one is
= (n − 1) + ( 2n − 1)
2

6086555670238378989670371734243169622657830773351885970528324860512791691264.
= n 2 − n − n + 1 + 2n − 1
= n2
Find the other.

This is a

Heronian triangle
— a triangle with side lengths and area that are all integers.
Find its perimeter and area.

8
The ratio of the unshaded area to the shaded is 5:7.
What is the smallest integer
length and width of the rectangle?
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