Number
&
Measure

Now we know humans use numbers to count things, like how many fingers or how many sheep,

or perhaps they measure things by counting the number of units that match how long it is,

like the centimetres on a ruler, or the miles of a journey.

But just because humans use numbers about things, doesn't mean that they have to be talking about things to play with numbers.

They can see what numbers can do even when they aren't talking about anything in particular.

They can see if numbers do anything interesting when they do different things with them.

And that way they found out that numbers do all sorts of strange and interesting things.

They make patterns of different types

and some numbers turn out to be very different from other numbers,

and some are extra special in the way that they are tied to the way that the creation works,

and some of them have a special beauty,

and lots of them work together in quite magical ways.

But playing with numbers when they aren't linked with things in the world can often come up with ways to solve problems in the world

using numbers in ways that haven't been thought of before.

And however much fun it may be to play with numbers,

they are really only useful to people

when they can be seen and used in the world around us.

And they use numbers all the time in the different things they do,

like measuring time

and dividing it into units that people can agree on.

Or making units to measure what they think is precious,

to measure value,

units that they can agree on and turn into tokens to use as money.

And because things can't always be counted exactly,

they often need to work out the best guess they can come up with

And that's where playing with numbers comes into its own,

because there are all sorts of situations where the eyes and brains of humans have a way of fooling them

into thinking something is obvious,

when the numbers can tell them that it isn't that way at all.

And muslims know that all creation may be made with numbers built into it,

but those numbers are only to help them understand.

The Creator has no number other than One.

Playing with numbers and Using numbers

Odd and even,

Magic squares and Primes

Guessing and seeing numbers in a different way

What can you use it for?

What is it worth?

Telling time and feeling time,

Times for prayer and fasting