Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

This page is dedicated to the number 23. You might not think 23 is special, but it’s the smallest odd cototient prime, and forms a boundary point for the birthday paradox. It is the number of the Illuminati, and my birthday.

The 23 Enigma

All events are connected to the number 23, a belief held by Discordians and myself. According to Wikipedia, 23 is “considered either lucky, unlucky, sacred to the goddess Eris, sinister, sacred to the unholy gods of the Cthulhu Mythos, or strange.”

23 in Pop Culture

There have been two movies made about the number 23. In 1998, the movie 23 came out as a German movie about a hacker Karl Koch who committed suicide on May 23, 1989. More recently, The Number 23 starring Jim Carrey was released on February 23, 2007 to overwhelmingly bad reviews. The number also appears as a reference in television and other movies:

• Star Wars - Princess Leia was held in cell AA23
• The Matrix - Neo needed 23 people to found Zion
• Lost - 23 is in the sequence of mystical numbers {4,8,15,16,23,42}

In sports, Michael Jordan and David Beckham wear the symbol 23 on their jerseys.

Mathematical properties of 23

• 23 is a prime number, as well as a factorial, Woodall, Smarandache-Wellin, Eisenstein, Sophie Germain, and Safe prime
• 23 is the smallest odd prime which is not a twin prime
• 23 is one of two integers that cannot be expressed as the sum of fewer than 9 cubes of integers
• Codewords in the perfect binary Golay code are of size 23
• There 23 Axioms in Euclid’s Geometry.

23 is Holy

• The best Psalm is the 23rd Psalm of the 23rd book of the Bible.
• In 23 years the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad.
• In Buddhist cosmology there are 23 events irreducible to either mind or matter.
• Hexagram 23 in I Ching means “breaking apart.”
• L. Ron Hubbard’s Axiom 23, “All thought is concerned with motion.”
• December 23, 2012 is the date the Mayans believed the world will end.
• Jacques de Molay was the 23rd and last of the Knights Templar Grandmasters.

Science & 23

It’s no coincidence that human sex cells have 23 chromosomes, or that earth has an Axial tilt of 23.5 degrees. There’s more of 23 to be found in nature, however:

• 23 is the atomic number for Vanadium
• Sodium has an atomic mass of ~23
• Only 23 people allowed in a AOL chatroom
• The letter W is the 23 letter of this alphabet. The symbol for that letter is 2 points down and 3 points up.
• September 23 is the Fall Equinox.

The Number 23 in the News

2007-05-20: Paris Hilton’s jail sentence for driving on a suspended license has been reduced to 23 days, with no more appeals. ^[ref]

2007-05-18: A 60 year old man died on a No. 23 bus yesterday after a fight with an unidentified passenger. ^[ref]

2001-09-11: The September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center leveled three major NY buildings; the digits 2+1+9+11 add up to 23.

1935-10-23: Dutch Schultzhad Vincent Coll assassinated on 23rd Street in New York when Coll was 23 years old. Schultz himself was assassinated on the 23rd of October. ^[ref]

1805-12-23: Joseph Smith, Jr. who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) was born. ^[ref]

1564-4-23: Shakespeare was born on April 23rd 1564 and died on the same day, in 1616.

44BC-4-15: Julius Ceasar, betrayed by friends, is stabbed 23 times and dies. ^[ref]

Resources for Finding 23

Here are some external resources for exploring the number twenty three:

• HOW MYSTICAL 23 CHANGED COURSE OF HISTORY
• The 23 Phenomenon
• The Number 23 by Jonathan McGregor Bethel

My Impressions

I’m extraordinarily lucky because this number is my birthday, yet I will probably die a violent and horrible death. The power of 23 grant me glory!

14 Responses to '23 Is Destiny'

1. James Jerreau said:

   on May 19th, 2007 at 5:44 pm

   You really should have included the Law of Fives (another Discordian discovery).

   First - not the law - note that 23 contains the number five (2 + 3).

   The law of fives states that ALL phenomena whatsoever are in some way connected to the number five, or to the number 23, given enough ingenuity on the part of the researcher.

2. Wendy said:

   on May 25th, 2007 at 12:11 pm

   hehe, I owe you a comment on 23 =)))
   To be honest, I do feel somewhat connected with this number. My deskmate in the middle school used to have 23 as his class number. We are competing in everything!!! not just studying and grades, but speed of eating lunch!! — and that was published on the newspaper. lol. (i’m telling u the truth, cuz we both want to eat really fast and see who could save more time for studying!)
   Yeah, that was my impression in the past of 23.
   Now, of course, because of Elliott, my one and only love in the world, I like 23 A LOT as well =)))))

   hmmm, can u guess what was my class number in the middle school?

   It was 16!
   i’m not sure whether i still like it that much or not.

   oh, well, thats part of my password in general use. ^^ so… hehe. i couldn’t possiblly make any change of this preference now.

   My favorite digit is seven.

   hmm, i think i believed more in the magic of number when I was younger.

   But anywayz, it was really entertaining to read such an article, my numberic magician Elliott

3. Jim said:

   on June 15th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

   23 is also the number that Don Mattingly wore. Go Yankees!

4. Nicole said:

   on June 18th, 2007 at 2:05 pm

   Elliot,
   I have actually never been to your site, but that was very interesting. Thanks for that post, I never knew all of that.
   Keep up the good work, and research.
   You should be proud!!
   Email me some time!
   -nicole

5. MJ said:

   on July 9th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

   How bout 13, is it any significant compare to 23. Just curious if you’ll decide to write something about 13 later on.

6. lita said:

   on July 27th, 2007 at 8:17 am

   the word life in numbers is 12965 and it = 23

7. kelly said:

   on August 13th, 2007 at 10:11 pm

   I was born on 11/8/67. (1+1+8+6+7=23).
   My wife was born on 7/25/72. (7+2+5+7+2=23).

   Weird.

8. Kels said:

   on October 4th, 2007 at 5:15 pm

   that’s why my lucky number is 32.

9. Channing said:

   on December 7th, 2007 at 5:55 am

   23 is the closest integer to e^pi (e and pi being two of the most important constants in mathematics).

10. betty said:

    on December 23rd, 2007 at 10:18 pm

    My birthday, my daughter, my husband, my stepson, 3 nephews and 3 friends are all the 23rd

11. Matt K. said:

    on December 28th, 2007 at 5:46 am

    23 has always been one of my favorite numbers.

12. Thomas Cleberg said:

    on March 10th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

    23 is also the 23rd number if you count to 23 by 1/23rd of 23. There are 23 Quarters in 5.75, which is also 23 x .25 (or .5 squared. Coincidence? I think not.) There are also 23 units of any group with only 23 members. The phrase “The complete second season”, found on DVD collection boxes around the world has 23 letters. There are 23 words in the first 23 words of Don Quixote. But, to my amazement… there are 24(!) examples of the significance of the holy number 23 on your post! Holy god I’ve found a new holy number. There are 24 hours in a day.. 24 adds up to 6, which is what you multiply by 4 to get it.. 24 is equally close to the tilt of the earth’s axis as 23, so it fulfills that as well! 23 is old news. 24 is the new hotness.

13. James C said:

    on March 16th, 2008 at 4:46 am

    23 is my lucky number. I didnt realise other’s had an obsession like me until i saw the Jim Carrey Movie and it’s even more apparent in looking at this site.

    Now my friends know it’s not just me that likes the number and notices it at least 5 times a day on the clock!

14. Dingle said:

    on April 17th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    Damn i searched this on google and their is a lot of things about 23 its weird but cool at the same time.

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