As Easy As Pi

Stuff about numbers that isn't (just) maths

Jamie Buchan

• Publisher: Michael O'Mara
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781782434337
• eBook ISBN: 9781843176367
• Topic: Mathematics
• Subtopic: Arithmetic
• Index: Mathematics

It's hard to imagine a world without numbers in this day and age, when our whole life is centered around commerce and money, and it is the only language that is the same the world over. However, did you know that for a long period of time people could not get their heads around the idea of zero, a figure representing nothing, and that it was even regarded as heretical in some circles? As Easy As Pi is an entertaining and accessible guide, written for those who love numbers - and those who don't - and uncovers a great deal of lore and intriguing information. Including:
Snippets of fascinating numerical facts
Myths and mysticism in the world of numbers
Numbers in language and used as slang
Pop-culture trivia
Useful mathematical rules to rememberTaking a quirky and insightful look at the world of numbers, As Easy As Pi will delight and entertain any number enthusiast.

Numbers in Mythology and Religion

SEVEN

The number seven crops up everywhere, particularly when religious or mystical elements are involved. According to Genesis (and some increasingly vocal fringe religious types), the world was created in seven days (OK, six days’ work and a day of rest).

The Catholic Church features Seven Sacraments, beginning with three sacraments of initiation into the Church: Baptism (as a child or an adult), Confirmation and the Eucharist (including Mass and Communion). There are also two Sacraments of Healing – Reconciliation or Penance (including confession), and the Anointing of the Sick by a priest; and two mutually exclusive Sacraments of Vocation: Marriage and Holy Orders. A number of these sacraments make up the Last Rites administered to dying Catholics – a final Penance (depending on whether the person can still speak), Anointment and a last Eucharist. In deathbed conversions, hasty Baptism and Confirmation is also necessary.

Christianity also features seven Deadly Sins, which are sometimes shown counterbalanced by seven Heavenly Virtues.

Deadly Sins	Heavenly Virtues
Gluttony	Temperance
Envy	Kindness
Greed	Charity
Pride	Humility
Lust	Chastity
Sloth	Zeal
Wrath	Meekness

Multiples of seven also appear in this way – there are fourteen Stations of the Cross (observed mainly in the Catholic Church), fourteen Holy Helpers (saints venerated in less scientific times as effective against various illnesses), and events in the Bible are often described as happening on the fourteenth day of a given month.

Unsurprisingly given the common origin of the Abrahamic religions, a similar concept of seven divine traits exists in Judaism, represented in the seven branches of the menorah. The Star of David has seven parts (six points and the centre), and there are seven holidays in the Jewish year. In Islam, there are seven verses in the first chapter (sura) of the Qur’an.

The divinity of the number seven may also be the reason for the number six being traditionally unlucky in religion: if seven represents Godly perfection, six represents the imperfections and flaws of man.

Seven’s everywhere

The exact reason for seven’s significance is not very clear. It could be to do with the seven ‘heavenly bodies’ visible to the naked eye in the ages before astronomy – the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. This is probably the origin of the Jewish and Muslim (and to some degree Christian) idea of seven heavens (see here). It certainly helps that seven is relatively small and a prime number, though.

This theory does at least explain the fact that seven is significant well outside the context of the Abrahamic religions. In Japanese mythology, for instance, there are seven gods of good fortune (shichi fukujin), people are reincarnated seven times in Japanese Buddhism, and there are seven principles in the bushido samurai code.

We also generally refer to seven colours in a rainbow, even though we rarely see more than four and they don’t generally have distinct boundaries. Isaac Newton, who discovered through experiments with prisms that white light was made up of coloured components, added the colours orange and indigo so as to conform to his theory that the colours of the spectrum corresponded to the seven major notes of a musical scale.

The choice of a seven-day week is probably largely to do with convenient subdivision of time. The Babylonians, who laid the foundations of our current measurement of time 5,000 years ago, were the first to divide the year into months based on the lunar cycle^*3. The lunar cycle is a rather awkward 29 days long, though, so for the sake of convenience the year was divided up into months of 28 days, which could then be subdivided neatly into four seven-day weeks.

Seven is also often used for more worldly collections of things, seemingly to exploit its mythological resonance. ‘Seven Seas’ referred to a number of different collections of bodies of water, and is still sometimes used today to refer to the Antarctic, Arctic, North and South Atlantic, North and South Pacific and Indian Oceans. It seems likely that it was simply a poetic turn of phrase meaning all the oceans, and there is some evidence for the number seven being synonymous for a time with ‘several’.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

The Great Pyramid of Khufu

Completed 2560 BC at Giza, Egypt.

It is the only Wonder still standing.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Completed early 6th century BC on the Euphrates, near modern Baghdad.

Destroyed by earthquake in the first century AD.

The Temple of Artemis

Completed c. 550 BC at Ephesus,

near modern Izmir, Turkey.

Destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly – finally torn

down by a mob in 401 AD.

The Statue of Zeus

Completed c. 450 BC at Olympia, Greece.

Probably destroyed by fire in 462 AD.

The Mausoleum (tomb of King Mausollos, hence the name)

Completed 350 BC at Halicarnassus

(now Bodrum), Turkey.

Destroyed by earthquake and subsequent Crusader disassembly in late 15th century AD.

The Colossus (statue of Helios)

Completed 282 BC at Rhodes, Greece.

Destroyed by earthquake in 226 BC.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria

Completed c. 280 BC in Alexandria, Egypt.

Destroyed by successive earthquakes in the 14th century AD.

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST?

‘Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.’

– REVELATIONS 13: 18

666 has long been considered unlucky in Christian traditions because of this passage from Revelations, which associates the number with the Devil. Like thirteen (see here), there is a widespread superstition about 666, so widespread that it’s catchily known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. It is interesting to note that 2006 brought concern from pregnant women expecting children on 6 June of that year – not helped by the heavily publicized release of a remake of the film The Omen on that date.

Highway 666 in the western US was renumbered to 491 after sugg...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Numbers in Language
• Numbers in Fiction
• Numbers in Culture
• Numbers in Mythology and Religion
• Numbers in Maths and Science
• Further Reading
• Endnotes