Opinion: Brainteasers to celebrate Zsa Zsa Gabor's centennial birthday

By Aziz Inan | February 7, 2017 10:59am
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By News release by Rogers & Cowan talent agents - ebay, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27865391

Zsa Zsa Gabor, born on Feb. 6, 1917 in Budapest, Hungary and died at 99 on December 18, 2016 in Los Angeles, Calif. was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite [1]. Gabor began her stage career in Vienna, Austria and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 at age 24 and became a sought-after actress with “European flair and style.”

Outside her acting career, Gabor was known for her extravagant Hollywood lifestyle, her glamorous personality and her many marriages. In total, Gabor had nine husbands including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders. She once stated, “Men have always liked me and I have always liked them. But I like a mannish man, a man who knows how to talk to and treat a woman—not just a man with muscles.”

If Gabor was still alive, she would have turned 100 on Feb. 6, 2017. To celebrate Gabor’s centennial birthday, I prepared the following birthday brainteasers for her:

1. Gabor’s birthday is numerically hidden in her name. How so? If numbers 1 to 26 are assigned to the letters of the English alphabet as A being 1, B being 2, C being 3, etc., the numbers assigned to the letters of Zsa Zsa Gabor put side by side yield 26191261917121518 where 261917 is indeed Gabor’s birthday, February 6, 1917.

2. Gabor died on 12/18/16 where the sum of these three numbers equals 46. Coincidentally, the sum of the numbers assigned to the letters of Zsa also equals 46. Further, if 12/18/2016 is split as 12, 18, 20 and 16, the sum of these four numbers equals 66 which when rotated by 180° yields 99, the age Gabor died.

3. The sum of the numbers assigned to the letters of Gabor equals 43 where the product of the digits of 43 is 12, the month number of Gabor’s death. Furthermore, 12 also equals the product of the digits of 2/6, Gabor’s birth date, February 6 and twice 12 is 24, the age at which Gabor came to the United States.

4. Additionally, the 12th prime number is 37 and the 37th day of 2017 is Gabor’s 100th birthday, 2/6/2017. Moreover, if 2017 is split into 20 and 17, the sum of these two numbers yields 37. Also, the square of the sum of the digits of 37 results in 100. The square of the sum of the digits of 46 (Zsa) also equals 100. The square of the sum of the digits of 2017 equals 100 too.

5. The sum of 46 and 43 (Zsa Gabor) equals 89 which is the 24th prime number where 24 is the age when Gabor came to US. Also, the product of the digits of 46 (Zsa) equals 24.

6. The sum of the digits of Gabor’s centennial birthday 2/6/2017 yields 18, the day number of Gabor’s death in December of 2016. The sum of the digits of Gabor’s birth year 1917 equals 18 too.

7. Gabor died 50 days before her 100th birthday where 50 equals half of 100.

8. Gabor died on the 353rd day of 2016 where the 353rd prime number is 2381 and 2381 times the sum of the digits of 353, namely 11, yield 26191. Coincidentally, the numbers assigned to the letters of Zsa put side by side also yield 26191!

9. If Gabor’s 100th birthday is expressed as 622017 (6 February 2017), this number equals 99 x 61 x 103 where 99 is the age she died and further, prime numbers 61 and 103 add up to 164.

Interestingly enough, twice the reverse of 164, namely 461, result in 922 and eight times reverse of 922, namely 229, gives 1832 which is the reverse of 2381 (see item # 8). Also, 229 is the 50th prime number where twice 50 yields 100.

10. Gabor’s 100th birthday expressed as 622017 equals 3 x 3 x 11 x 61 x 103 where these prime factors add up to 178 which is twice 89 (Zsa Gabor). Lastly, if 622017 is split as 62, 20, and 17, the sum of these three numbers yield 99, the age Gabor died last December.

Happy 100th birthday Zsa Zsa Gabor!

[1] Zsa Zsa Gabor, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zsa_Zsa_Gabor

Aziz Inan is a professor of electrical engineering teaching in the Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering at University of Portland. He can be reached at ainan@up.edu.

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