By Aziz Inan |
Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk, blues, and country music singer and songwriter [1]. This Tuesday, January 26, 2016 marks Williams’s 63rd birthday and while I looked into numbers in her birthday, I observed that Williams’s upcoming birthday is numerically special. For this reason, I constructed the following birthday brainteasers to surprise her and wish her happy birthday:
First, the date of Williams’s 63rd birthday can be written as 01-26-2016, or simply 01262016. Note that if this date is split in the middle as 0126 and 2016, both of numbers are made of the same digits.
Second, if Williams’s 63rd birthday date 01262016 is split into 01, 26, 20, and 16, these four numbers add up to 63.
Third, twice 63 equal 126, coinciding with Williams’s birth date, January 26.
Fourth, the reverse of the sum of the leftmost and rightmost halves of 2016 (20 and 16) is 63, which coincides with Williams’s new age.
Fifth, 2016 is divisible by 63.
Sixth, 2016 equals the sum of all integers from 1 to 63.
Seventh, if numbers 1 to 26 are assigned to the letters of the English alphabet, A as 1, B as 2, C as 3, etc., the sum of the numbers assigned to the letters of Lucinda and Williams are each 64 and 98 and their sum is 162. Interestingly enough, the reverse of 162 is 261 which in day-month date format coincides with Williams’s birth date, 26 January. Wow!
Lastly, Williams will celebrate her 64th birthday next year on 01262017 where 64 equal the sum of numbers assigned to the letters of Lucinda. Further, if date 01262017 is split into 01, 26, 20, and 17, the sum of these yields 64.
Happy 63rd birthday, Lucinda Williams!
Aziz Inan is an Electrical Engineering professor at the University of Portland and can be reached at ainan@up.edu.
[1] Lucinda Williams, Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucinda_Williams
