• MudMan@fedia.io
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    16 days ago

    But I can wrap my head around that 51 is divisible by seventeen because of 21 and seven plus something that deals with the remaining 30 somewhere.

    I know that’s not how it works, but as you say it fixes my vibes when I see the 21 hiding inside the 51.

    I’ll say this: the other thing that makes this one a hard pill to swallow is that 17 looks way too big, and my vibes fix doesn’t address that, but hey.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      16 days ago

      Why not add the digits? If the sum of digits is divisible by 3, the number is divisible by 3. 5 + 1 is divisible by 3, so it’s not prime.

      49 “looks” more prime to me because it fails that test, and if I didn’t know it’s 72, I’d say it’s probably prime.

      • MudMan@fedia.io
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        16 days ago

        I think the posts along these lines are already two steps too far away from the vibes.

        Nobody is even considering the number being prime, it just looks like there can’t be a round number of one against the other because one is big and ends in seven and the other is relatively small and ends in 1.

        If you’re even thinking about divisibility rules you’re doing it wrong. As in, your brain is too impacted by maths to see what the numbers look like from instinct alone. There’s no thinking in this, they just look weird together.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          16 days ago

          I’ve always loved math, so seeing patterns is intuitive. 3 also happens to be my favorite number, so I like looking for it in the wild.

          If someone says “51 is divisible by 17,” my instinct is that it tracks because it’s obviously divisible by 3, so the other factor would be a little less than 20. That’s literally my first instinct.

          7 is a weird multiple, but 3 is really easy. I guess I’m weird…