Probably the oddest fact about number 1 is that the ancient Greeks didn't regard it as a number at all.
While we feel that the number 1 is the building block of the rest of our mathematics system, the Greeks felt that a number was 'an aggregate of units' so obviously 1 couldn't be an aggregate of any units.
There are several prefix words in the English language which denote one, making it easier to guess a word's meaning even if you hadn't come across it before:
mono - as in monocle, monotone, monogamy
uni - as in unicycle, unicorn, universe, unity
When a child learns to count, he is adding one to the number before each time. The learning may start by counting on fingers, but this is still establishing the method.
The earliest form of counting was tally counting - using a mark to denote each item and grouping the marks together (usually in groups of 5).
It's probable that the way we write number 1 comes from this as tally counting used a single straight line for each item counted.
Infinity is defined as being impossible to achieve because any number can always have 1 added to it to create a larger number.
1 is the base unit of measurement: for example a circle of unit radius means a circle with radius one unit whether that unit be inches, centimetres or miles.
1 is not considered to be a prime number because a prime number is defined as being a number that can only be divided by 1 and another number.
Since 1 can only be divided by 1, it doesn't fit the definition.
1 is also interesting because the number and its square and its square root are all the same number: 1.
No other number can claim that.
Most numbers have some fascinating facts associated with them: I'll take a look at other numbers in future articles.
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