Nine

I’m often asked what my favorite number is, and the answer is difficult. I want to say three. I love the number three. If I have to pick a number between one and five, I will pick 3. However, if I am asked to pick a number between one and ten, I will pick 9. I’ve often wondered why I love three. It could be because my birthday is the 30th. It is actually 10/30 and 10 times 3 is 30 which is perfect and amazing! Three is the smallest of an infinite number of odd prime numbers. Every multiple of three adds up to 3, 6, or 9. While the factors of 3 are both odd and even just like all odd numbers, there is something incredibly special about three and the patterns it creates.

When you multiply three by itself you get nine, making nine exponentially more magnificent than three. Nine is a perfect square with three on each side. While all the multiples of three add to either 3, 6, or 9, all multiples of 9 add up to 9! You can know in a split second, by adding the digits of a number, if the number is divisible by nine. Once you know the combinations of numbers that add to nine, you know the multiples of nine.  When multiplying a single digit by 9, the tens place of the products moves up while the ones digit moves down.  What a fantastic, perfect pattern.  There are only 4 possible combinations, and they reverse, and the digit in the tens place is the number below the multiplicand, so if you are given multiple choice, it is so quick and easy to find the answer.

1+8=9 9x2 = 18

2+7=9 9x3 = 27

3+6=9 9x4 = 36

4+5=9 9x5 = 45

5+4=9 9x6 = 54

6+3=9 9x7 = 63

7+2=9 9x8 = 72

8+1=9 9x9 = 81