Mazy’s Muddle: Happy Number 13
Hi friends, if you have been reading this column regularly, then today you are reading the 13th Mazy piece on a Friday.
And I feel so happy! You see, I am not a Paraskevidekatriaphobic — someone with a deep and irrational fear of Friday the 13th! So I turned 13 cartwheels in joy, and ate 13 bits of chocolate and on the back of the wrapper was a starburst on which was printed: No 13. Congratulations! You have won a magic trumpet! Then my friend Mona dropped in. “Mazy, you crazy being, why are you looking so silly in the middle of the morning?”
“Hey Mona, do you know, number 13 is a ....”
“Yes, I do know that 13 is a happy number,” she said as though it was something every one would know. Happy numbers are those that follow this rule: square the digits, add them, keep doing it. If the final answer is 1, then the number you started out with is a happy number. For example, 7 is a happy number.
72 = 49 , 42 + 92 = 97 , 92 + 72 = 130 , 12 + 32 + 02 = 10 ,12 + 02 = 1.
“Mazy, can you find out how many numbers less than 13 are happy?”
I know I should not have eaten so much chocolate...it does something to my brain...otherwise, you know, I would have got the answer in a jiffy...really! Oh, just help me here, please!
Out of the maze:
Other than 7, 1 and 10 are the other happy numbers less than 13. Some other happy numbers are 19, 23, 28...
