3 as a magic number

3 – The Magic Number?

Is 3 are a magic number. The importance of 3 as a number cannot be over emphasized. Let us lok at it before we enter into the realm of Number Theory.

1 Humans see the world in three dimensions (height, width, and depth) although quantum physics suggests there may be a fourth dimension (time).

2 There are three primary colors which make all other colors. They are red, yellow and blue. This is due to our eye cells only having three color receptor cones.

3. Tri means three, thus Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics based on the relationships between angles. Triangles have three corners and three sides and trigonometry was essential in early navigation and astronomy.

4. The idea of the three parts of a human (mind, body and soul) came from Ancient Greece where Plato set out his philosophy of the ‘threefold soul’ – the intellect, noble affections and the lower appetites/passions. Christians as well believe that human being is of three personalities-Body, Soul and Spirit. Also in Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis, he described human’s mind in three form -Id, Ego and Super Ego. Life itself has been noted to take three parts – birth, life, and death.

4. In terms of DNA our genes are read by a triplet code – read in a sequence of 3 bases which determine our genetic makeup.

5. The ‘rule of three’ occurs as a useful estimation tool:

• Pilots use it – calculating three miles of travel for every 1,000 feet (300 m) of descent
• In Economics, a rule is that there are three major competitors in a free market in any one industry.

6. In business, a three is written with a flat top to prevent fraud by way of it being changed into 8. As such, it became known as the ‘bankers three‘.

7. It is the closest number to Pi (3.14159) which is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Among many other things knowing Pi (or estimating it to three) enables geometric, statistical, fractal and mechanical calculation.

8. It is a prime and super-prime number – the sum of the numbers below it, and the only number whose sum with those below equals the product of them and itself.