Your Days Are Numbered

Numbers have always interested me. Even before I went to Bible College and discovered the Principal's near-obsession with Scriptural numerics, I always found certain aspects of counting and mathematics to be interesting. Of course, numbers in the Bible are very important and show us a lot of things - all because the Hebrews put a lot of weight in numbers, where every numerical value gave objects and situations more meaning than just those things alone.

A few years back I was contemplating the hexadecimal colour system. Part of this was because I was into hard-coding web pages in a big way and had started making style sheets and random javascript stuff. It occurred to me that there must be millions of colour combinations, and so I set out to see if I could figure out just how many different combinations were possible. It took me a little while of throwing 'round some basic maths but eventually I discovered the somewhat basic formula for discerning a total number of combinations.

The formula is as follows: c = p^n, where c = combinations, p = switch positions and n = number of switches. I called them switches because I was thinking of actual switches on a switchboard and how many combinations of these there would be if given any number of switches, each with multiple positions (high / med / low / on / off, etc.). Using my newly concocted formula (Pythagoras, eat your heart out!), I then calculated the number of possible colours that a webpage can display, using its hexadecimal number system.

There are 6 switches, each with 16 positions: From Black (#000000) to White (#FFFFFF) - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F.
c = p^n
c = 16^6 = 16,777,216

A total of 16.78 million possible combinations. Webpages need never be boring! Actually, these days I stick to a mere 16^3, using the shortened hex-system. There's no need to use the more refined increments, as we can't actually tell the difference between subtle changes (eg. #1A3C7E vs #1B3D7F).

But enough about that. Just today, I was thinking about opposites and their alphabetically equivalent numerical significance; opposites of equal character-length. Incidentally, I'm pretty good with my alphabetical character vs its associated number. It comes with practising saying the alphabet backwards. Here are a few examples:

SUCCESS 19.21.03.03.05.19.19 vs FAILURE 06.01.09.12.21.19.05
SUCCESS
19+21+03+03+05+19+19 = 89
08+09 = 17
01+07 = 08
FAILURE
06+01+09+12+21+18+05 = 72
07+03 = 09
08 vs 09

Result: The difference between SUCCESS and FAILURE is minimal indeed.

SMILE :) 19.13.09.12.05 vs FROWN :( 06.18.15.23.14
SMILE
19+13+09+12+05 = 58
05+08 = 13
01+03 = 04
FROWN
06+18+15+23+14 = 76
07+06 = 13
01+03 = 04
04 vs 04

Result: What real difference between a SMILE and a FROWN, save that one is the other turned upside down?

One more:
LOVE 12.15.22.05 vs HATE 08.01.20.05
LOVE
12+15+22+5 = 54
05+04 = 09
HATE
08+01+20+05 = 34
03+04 = 07
09 vs 07

Result: HATE may seem the perfect emotion at times but real LOVE comes only from the Spirit of God.

I'm weird (82 = 01) :s

-Timotheos
26 = 08