Dear Kid,

Thirteen More Facts About the Number 13. DearKidLoveMom.comHappy 13th! And happy Day 2 of Fabulous Facts About the Number 13! To celebrate, here are 13 MORE facts about the number 13. (In case you already forgot, here are the first 13 Fab Facts.)

  1. The number 13 is considered a “happy number.” (Bet you didn’t know that.) Happy numbers are defined by a process of replacing each digit with its square and adding them up. Rinse and repeat until you get to the number “1”.
  2. “Eleven plus two” is an anagram of “twelve plus one”. That is just plain freaky cool.
  3. In Italy, 13 is a very lucky number. The phrase “fare tredici” (literally “to do 13”) means (figuratively) that you hit the jackpot. Well, duh. Because if you’re in Italy, that’s pretty wonderful.
  4. There are 13 items in a baker’s dozen. (You knew that.)
  5. Thirteen is a happy number. DearKidLoveMom.comBut I bet you didn’t know that 13 is the smallest emirp. Did you even know we had emirps? An emirp (I did not make this up) is a prime number that becomes a different prime number when its digits are reversed.
  6. M is the 13th letter of the alphabet and exceptionally good for applying to Aunties and chocolate.
  7. District 13 wasn’t wiped out as so many people believed. (Extra points for getting the reference.)
  8. In rugby league, each side has 13 players on the field. (This does not apply if they’re playing sevens.)
  9. There are 13 notes (inclusive) in a full chromatic musical octave (this will also not be on the test).
  10. The number 13 has been good luck for many athletes including Wilt Chamberlain (basketball), Alex Rodriguez (baseball), and Pavel Datsyuk (hockey).
  11. The number 13 is an important motif in American heraldry (what? We have heraldry? When did that happen?). There were 13 original colonies,
  12. there are 13 stripes on the American flag, and
  13. the Great Seal of the United Sates has 13 stars on it.

Don’t you feel better knowing all that?

Love, Mom

District 13 in The Hunger Games. But you knew that.