666

When I looked at the cover of my Doom³ Edition, the number 666 came in mind when I looked at the pentagram.

666, known as the number of the beast. Even Iron Maiden gave this biblish the number a tribute. A number with some very strange properties. Let me give you some examples:

1) Roman numerals are based on seven symbols: I V X L C D M

Now use the first 6 symbols and add them: I + V + X + L + C + D

= 1 + 5 + 10 + 50 + 100 + 500

= 666

(ok, everyone with a little knowledge of mathematics can see that this isn't really strange. Roman numerals are decimal with a base of 10 and a help-base of 5 and because 1+5=6, 10+60=60 and 100+500=600, we have this strange looking result).

2) We take a look at the first nine numbers: 123456789

Let's insert some "+" to see if we may reach a result of 666:

666 =1+2+3+4+567+89

and

666 = 123+456+78+9

strange...

3) ...maybe it works with 987654321, too:

666 = 9+87+6+543+21

4) and here is another example for a calculation with this strange number:

1^6-2^6+3^6 = 666

5) Let's make it a bit more difficult...

The 666 is equal to the sum of the squares of the first 7 primes

2²+3²+5²+7²+11²+13²+17²=666

(that's a bit more curious...)

6) Let's stay at the primes. Now it's getting scary:

A.W.Johnson made the apocalyptic magic square. It's 6x6 rows.

The sum of each row horizontal and vertical, every diagonal and every half diagonal have the sum 666.

All 36 numbers are primes and all primes are different. Try to beat this...

+                             +
     3  107    5  131  109  311
     7  331  193   11   83   41
   103   53   71   89  151  199
   113   61   97  197  167   31
   367   13  173   59   17   37
    73  101  127  179  139   47
+                             +

7) Well, let's stay at the magic squares. Rudolf Ondrejka constructed a magic square made of numeral palindromes:

232  313  121

111  222  333

323  131  212

The sum of every row is the palindrome 666.

8) When you think it couldn't be more strange, Dr.Ondreika found another magic square:

320  169  138  39

26  151  208  281

195  294   13  164

125  52  307  182

mmh...doesn't look very interesting. But:

• every row is in sum 666
• every column is in sum 666
• the diagonales are in sum 666
• all halfdiagonales (169+26+307+164) are in sum 666
• and (I told you it's strange) the numbers in the corners of all four 3x3 sub-squares (320+138+13+195) are in sum 666, the numbers in the corners of all 2x4 sub-squares are 666, too and at last all four numbers in the corners of our strange magic square are 666 in sum.

You think we are finish with this? No ;-)

On each number of this square, calculate modulo 9 and the resulting square is:

5  7  3  3

8  7  1  2

6  6  4  2

8  7  1  2

What do we have now? Look at the third column. Yes, that's Pi (3,141).

The fourth column has the 666 hidden (3x222) and the third row, too (6/6/4+2).

9) Killed your brain? A simple last one: write all numbers from 1 to 36 in a 6x6 square.

If you calculate 1+2+3+4+5+...+36 the result is 666.

I could go on and on with stuff like this...but the only question I'm thinking about is:

Was the 666 chosen as the number of the beast because you can do all these strange things with this number, or can you do all these strange things with this number because it's the number of the beast?

Sounds to me like the hen and egg problem...

Next post will be part four of my tutorial...I promise ;-)

PS: a beer for everyone who finds out what's strange at the post time...