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MATHEMATICAL MYSTERIES
The Number That Reads Itself
Read the digits aloud. Repeat. Watch a mathematical universe appear.
Write down the number 1.
Now do something slightly unusual. Do not treat it as a value to calculate with. Treat it as something to describe.
What do you see? You see one 1. So you write: 11
Now look at 11. What do you see? You see two 1s. So you write: 21
Now look at 21. You see one 2 followed by one 1. So you write: 1211
Continue the same way and you get:
At first, this feels like a children’s puzzle. Say what you see. Write it down. Repeat.
The sequence is known as the look-and-say sequence. It is most famously associated with the English mathematician John Horton Conway, who showed that behind its playful surface lies a surprisingly rigid mathematical structure.
A Game Of Saying What You See
The rule is simple. Take the previous term. Read its digits from left to right. Group together consecutive…
