Opinion: Numerical curiosity for Billy Graham's birthday

By Aziz Inan | November 7, 2018 7:28pm
400px-billy-graham-bw-photo-april-11-1966
photo of Billy Graham from Wikimedia commons.

William Franklin Graham Jr. known as Billy Graham was a prominent American evangelist who was widely considered the most influential Christian pastor of the 20th century [1].

As a preacher, Graham held large indoor and outdoor rallies with sermons broadcast on radio and television. In his six decades of television, he hosted annual Billy Graham Crusades, which ran from 1947 until his retirement in 2005. His website claims that Graham preached to live audiences of 210 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings.

Graham was a spiritual adviser to U.S. presidents and provided spiritual counsel for every president from the 33rd, Harry S. Truman, to the 44th, Barack Obama.

Graham died of natural causes on February 21, 2018, at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, at the age of 99.

Graham was born on November 7, 1918 in Charlotte, North Carolina and November 7, 2018 this week will mark Graham’s 100th birthday. I prepared the following numerical curiosities for his centennial birthday:

1. If Graham’s birthday expressed as 11/07/1918 is split in the middle as 1107 and 1918, the sum of these two numbers equals 3025 and 3025 equals 55 square. Interestingly, in each year, the total number of days between November 7 and the end of the year equals 55.

2. If Graham’s centennial birthday expressed as 11/07/2018 is split in the middle as 1107 and 2018, the sum of these two numbers equals 3125 and 3125 equals 5^5.

3. Further, 11072018 equals the product of 2, 53, 67, and 1559 and these four prime numbers add up to 1681, which equals 41 square. Interestingly, Graham’s birth date 1107 (November 7) equals 41 times the difference between 41 and its reverse, namely 14.

4. Additionally, if numbers 1 to 26 are assigned to the letters of the English alphabet, the sum of the numbers assigned to the letters of William Franklin Graham equals 212 and 212 equals the sum of 171 and 41. Note that the product of 171 and 41 equals 7011, which is the reverse of Graham’s birth date, 11/07.

5. Moreover, half of 212 equals 106 and interestingly, Graham died 106 days after his 99th birthday.

6. In item # 3, 2, 53, 67, and 1559 are the 1st, 16th, 19th, and 246th prime numbers and 1, 16, 19, and 246 add up to 282 which is twice 141. Interestingly, the difference between the right and left halves of Graham’s birthday 11071918 is 1918 – 1107 = 811 and 811 is the 141st prime number.

7. The reverse of Graham’s birth year 1918, namely 8191, is the 1028th prime number and the prime factors of 1028, namely 2 and 257, add up to 259. Interestingly, Graham died 259 days before his 100th birthday.

8. Note also that 257 is the 55th prime number (see item # 1).

9. If Graham’s centennial birthday 11072018 is split in the middle as 1107 and 2018, the difference of these two numbers equals 911. Eight times the reverse of 911, namely 119, equals 952, which is the reverse of 259 (see item # 7).

10. Lastly, if Graham’s 100th birthday 11072018 is split as 11, 07, 20, and 18, 11 plus 07 equals 18. Furthermore, the prime factors of 1107, namely 3 and 41, differ by 38 and 38 equals 20 plus 18.

[1] Billy Graham, Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham

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

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