Numbers

by Hla Min

Updated : Aug 2025

Value of a number

Value of a number in positional notation depends upon the Base or Radix.

In the Decimal system (Base Ten), 1001 has a value of a thousand and one.

In the Binary system (Base Two), 1001 has a value of 9.

Folklore

• “One Thousand and One Nights” (also known as Arabian Nights) is from the Arabic Folklore.
• Scheherazade told 1001 stories to defer her death.

Numerical Palindrome

• A palindrome reads the same forward and backward.
• 101, 1001 and 123454321 are numerical Palindromes.

Ramanujan and the Beauty of numbers

Ramanujan was highly interested in Mathematics and ignored other subjects in College.

Ended up as an employee in a post office.
Bold enough to send his handwritten notes to Professor Hardy (Cambridge University), who sponsored him.

Ramanujan later fell gravely ill.
Professor Hardy went to see him in a hospital. He supposedly told Ramanujan that he rode a taxi cab with 1729 on its license.

Ramanujan replied, “That is an interesting number. It is the smallest number that can be represented as the sum of two cubes in two ways.”

1729 = 729 + 1000 = 9*9*9 + 10*10*10

1729 = 1 + 1728 = 1*1*1 + 12*12*12

Ramanujan’s works are still being studied and refined by Mathematicians.