We have a winner

Published on Wednesday November 7th, 2007

Wow, who knew there were so many Miyazaki fans reading this blog? Congratulations to everyone who pounced on the kodama spirits from Princess Mononoke. It’s not my favorite of his films (that honor would have to go to My Neighbor Totoro on the strength of the Catbus alone, and additionally it’s a perfect little movie), but those funny wood spirits with their rattly heads lodged in my memory. Their crude little white faces also made me think of the days when jack o’ lanterns were carved in turnips instead of pumpkins.

But enough backstory: I asked Mr. Garter to think of a number between one and thirty-three (inclusive), since that was the number of comments on this post. He came up with twenty-three, and then launched into a musing about how many prime numbers produce another prime number when you add their digits. I’m afraid I tuned out this nerdy segue (although doubtless I’ll find myself thinking about it later, being a nerd myself), because twenty-three was Veronique’s comment, and she got it right! So send me your new address, Veronique, and I’ll pop a little something in the mail to you!

4 Comments to “We have a winner”

  1. Seanna Lea Comment Says:
    Posted: November 7th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    I’ll admit to being a nerd who really likes (I almost wrote loves and decided that might be too weird) prime numbers. Congrats to Veronique!

  2. Veronique Comment Says:
    Posted: November 7th, 2007 at 12:39 pm

    Wheeeee!
    Thanks 🙂
    PS 17 is a prime #, and when you add its digits, you don’t get a prime #! Same for 11, and 13. And 53. I realize that proving Mr. Garter wrong should not make me giddy, but hey, I’m bored at work…

  3. Mr. Garter Comment Says:
    Posted: November 8th, 2007 at 8:55 pm

    Hey Veronique,
    congrats!

    So to respond to your challenge ( 🙂 ), I wasn’t thinking that all prime numbers create other prime numbers when you add their digits, just some, like 11, 41 (also creates 5, like 23), oh…and 113 also sums to 5, 151, 193, etc.

    most of these numbers (all except one of them) are also Sophie Germain Primes, which come up in computer science a lot. Fun!

    Watch out Mrs Garter.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain_prime

  4. Nicole Comment Says:
    Posted: November 10th, 2007 at 5:32 am

    Ah!!! That’s what the little wonky pumpkin face was! I knew I had seen it somewhere, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it and it was driving me crazy!

    So cute!