May 1, 2015
36 and why it’s the best
it’s even, and I am partial to even numbers in general
it’s a perfect square and a triangular number
its square root is also a triangular number (36 is the only number other than 1 which has this property)
it is a highly composite number, meaning that it has more factors than any positive integer before it
it’s semiperfect
it’s the sum of a twin prime pair (17 + 19)
it’s the sum of the cubes of the first three positive integers, and it’s the product of the squares of the first three positive integers.
it’s an Erdos-Woods number
it is a Størmer number because 362 + 1 = 1297, a prime greater than 2×36
the numbers 1 through 36 sum to 666 (aka the number of the beast)
