What your favorite number?

I take attendance by having the students answer a question, although that policy has come under [my] scrutiny and it will change a bit this semester. (I'm using clickers in-class so I already know who is there, approximately.)

What is your favorite number?

One student said i; everyone else picked an integer with < 5 digits. I'm not sure much valuable or amusing information can be gleaned from this, although I do have follow-up questions. If the question had been framed differently, it might have solicited this information in addition.

Favorite numbers that I think are explicable (or at least Google-able):

• 0
• 1
• 2
• 4
• 7
• 10
• 13
• 42
• 69
• 1995
• 2996
• 3301

Numbers that require additional justification:

• 29 (primality? permanent age of all famous people?)
• 32 (age? factorization? course number?)
• 37 (age? primality? course number? looks cool?)
• 816 (area code?)
• 20 (total # of toes? current age?)
• 71 (film title? pointy when written? year of something?)
• 77 (smallest possible integer requiring 5 syllables in English, apparently?)

This turned out not to be as interesting as "what is the largest number you have counted to out loud?" Question framing is so important.


This post's theme word is skint, "having no money; broke; poor". The question was imagination-skint.

Spectacular sunset

Really spectacular sunset today.

I mean, the sun set in its usual way (by having my reference frame zoom to point away), but the intervening atmosphere was full of some sort of pollutant or airborne ooze that gave the light Renaissance-ceiling levels of cloud coloration.


This post's theme word is faience (n), "glazed earthenware, especially decorated tin-glazed pottery." The colors reminded me of ornate faience.