Tuesday, October 5, 2004

prime birth dates

Shortly after Nathaniel's birth, we were all sitting together in my hospital room when the on-call pediatrician came in for a routine check-up.

"The 23rd, huh? That's a good day." I think she was just making polite conversation.

"It's a prime number," my husband and I chorused in response.

Somewhat startled by our enthusiastic tandem math, the pediatrician paused. "Huh," she said cautiously, "I had never thought of that."

At that point the attending nurse joined in. "Oh, I'm born on a prime too! My birthday is September 9th."

My husband and I both glanced at each other. "Um," I said hesitantly, "I don't think nine is a prime. But it's a good day anyhow!"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL...isn't it funny how your opinion of someone can change based on their knowledge (or lack) of something that seems basic to you?  I used to work at a library, and was shocked at the number of people who didn't know how to find a book that they looked up in the catalog.  I learned that in grade school, and was amazed when even a woman who said she was a teacher didn't seem to know how to use the Dewey Decimal System.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm prime numbers huh? Is there some belief behind that if you are born on a day that is a prime number?

Anonymous said...

Oh, no special belief. We just like prime numbers!