Week 9 of the count up

 9

Nine is an interesting number to multiply. If you add together the digits of the answer, you always end up back with 9.

2 * 9 = 18

Add together 1 and 8 et voila! 9

Or really go mad and try something bigger:

56 * 9 = 504

5+0+4 = 9

And even where you don’t immediately get back to 9, then add together the numbers of the answer until you get back to a single digit and it will always be 9.

55 * 9 = 495

4+9+5 = 18

1+8 = 9.

 

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

Week 8 of the count up

8

This week I’m using the fact that 4 + 4 = 8.

Pick any 4-digit number (it must contain at least 2 different digits, so it could be 4985, or 5583 etc but not 5555)

1.     Write the digits in ascending order e.g. 4985 would become 4589

2.     Now write the digits in descending order e.g. 4985 would become 9854

3.     Now subtract the smaller number from the larger e.g. 9854 minus 4589 equals 5265

Now start again at 1 with this new number, and eventually you will end up with 6174, no matter where you start. The number 6174 is known as Kaprekar’s constant. 

 

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

Week 7 of the count up

7

Seven is a number that crops up all over the place: 7 dwarves, 7 days in the week, 7 wonders of the world etc. It is also popular as a ‘favourite number’ and has come top in favourite number polls.

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post

Interrupting the count up with an audio announcement

Horse of a Different Colour is due out as an audiobook any day now. Watch this space! But as for Horse of the Same Colour, this is week 6 of the count up and things are going well.

6

The number 6, because it denotes 6 weeks, has an interesting connection to the number 10 – check out week 10 for more. If I was counting up in days, this connection wouldn’t work.

 

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post