Listen | The Greatest Numbers of All Time
IDEAS explores the origins, history and lessons of numbers in a series we're calling The Greatest Numbers of All TIme.
Zero
The number zero is essential to modern mathematics. But for thousands of years, humanity lived without it — and even resisted it. According to Aristotle the concept of zero was antithetical to the very existence of God. Medieval Christians attempted to ban its use. Even modern mathematicians continue to be confounded by zero, a number that simply refuses to play by the rules. In the first episode of our series on numbers, we explore the remarkable power of a number that represents nothing at all, and the dangers hidden in its void.
Three
If you say the name "Bloody Mary" three times in front of a mirror, she'll get you. If you want to heal your goiter in 17th century Scotland, repeat a charm three times. To access the power of the spirit world, call on three-faced Hekate, goddess of magic and spaces in-between. Incantations of three are common in the mystical, magical, supernatural, and the occult. As our number series continues, we enter the powerful and spiritual realm of three.
Five
The mathematical achievement of counting the digits on one hand usually introduces a young human to the concept of 'five'. This experience endows the number with an amiable quality, later to be confirmed by the ease with which it can be multiplied, thanks to our base 10 system. However, poor old five becomes increasingly odd upon deeper contemplation. Its unique position as the first 'safe prime', its awkward relations with 12 and 20, and its sad entanglement in science's great "replication crisis" in so much shaky research will push curious and foolhardy minds past the safe zone and into more treacherous areas of number theory.
Nine
In Norse mythology there exists a huge ash tree, and underneath its roots are nine worlds. In fact, the number nine appears all over the place, in culture and folklore, making unlikely and uncanny connections. Carl Jung called it synchronicity. There are the nine emotions of Indian aesthetics, nine heavenly bodies that define life, the curse of Beethoven's ninth symphony, The Beatles' Revolution 9, and the striker in soccer: historically wearing number 9. Why does a cat have nine lives and not eight, or seven? Why do we dress to the nines, why is it good to go the whole nine yards? It has something to do with 9 being close to a perfect 10. But there's even more to it than that.
