The Wonder of 9

It is the 9th second of the 9th minute of the 9th hour of the 9th day of the 9th month in the 9th year of the 21st century. That’s pretty cool. That’s 9 six times, which is 54, and of course 5 + 4 = 9. Did you know that you can do that with products of 9?
2 x 9 = 18 -> 1 + 8 = 9
3 x 9 = 27 -> 2 + 7 = 9
7 x 9 = 63 -> 6 + 3 = 9
23 x 9 = 207 -> 2 + 0 + 7 = 9
368 x 9 = 3312 -> 3 + 3 + 1 + 2 = 9

And did you know, assuming you are in possession of two healthy hands with all their digits, that you can do the nines tables, 1- 9, on your hands? Try it…

1 x 9 -> Hold your hands up in front of you, fingers spread wide, palms facing out. Bend your left little finger down so that all the other fingers and thumbs are still spread out and visible. Now, starting from the left, count the number of fingers/thumbs still out -> 9, right? Seems obvious and a bit silly. Now try…

2 x 9 -> Hands out, fingers splayed. Starting from the left,bend the second finger in (this represents the #2 in the problem). This should be your left ring finger. Now, how many fingers are still extended to the LEFT of this bent finger?
1
How many fingers are still extended to the RIGHT of the bent finger?
8
Put these two numbers beside each other and you get 18. 2 x 9 = 18. Cool, huh?

Try 5 x 9.
Hands out, fingers spread, count 5 in from the left and bend that finger. Count the number of fingers to the LEFT of the bent finger.
4
Count the number of fingers to the RIGHT.
5
Put the two numbers side by side and you get…
45
5 x 9 = 45


Are you back now? Come on. We all know you just took a small break from reading this to do the rest of the 9s tables on your hands. It’s fine. Seriously. It’s all good. Mostly because 9 is cool.

Look at how 9 shows up. There are 9 months in a normal school year – many of which are divided up into 9 week quarters. It takes 9 months to build a human baby, and, in some cases, 9 minutes to send in the “troops” to get the baby started in the first place.

We dress “to the nines”, a favorite medieval weapon of choice was the cat-o-nine-tails, and don’t forget those felines and their famous “nine lives”. They may need them, of course, while evading their historic nemesis the K-9.

There are 9 innings in a standard baseball game, during which we might end up on “cloud 9” while day dreaming about dancing to “Love Potion Number 9” as we “party like it’s 1999”.

There are 9 Supreme Court Justices and 9 circles of Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy. And while I haven’t purposefully placed them this way, I imagine there are days when those justices feel like they must be somewhere among those nine circles.

Last, but hardly least, as a writer and artist I would be remiss if I failed to mention that there are 9 Muses to lend us mere mortals their creative influence and silliness.

(The title of this piece and these words exempted, there are 585 words total written here.
5 + 8 + 5 = 18.
1 + 8 = yes, you guessed it, 9.
~ Peace and fun)