Six is the oddest even number
It's one of those thoughts that hits you when you have too much empty brain time: is six is the oddest even number? In my view yes! And here's why:
Shape
I mean first of all look at it! Those curves! Far more evocative of 3, 5 or 9 than of the clean lines of 4. Fellow even number 2 at least has the straight bottom to ground it in its evenness.
"But what about 8!" I hear you cry at your screen. Yes, I agree eight has the curves more reminiscent of the odds, but look at it! Eight is so symmetrical, cut it down the middle, vertically or horizontally, and you get perfect balance. What could be more even that that?
Six is visually peculiar in other ways too. Most other numbers are top heavy, the important visual information stacked up top, tapering down from there like an inverted pyramid. Not six however! Six with it's abundance of white space surrounding it's top half is different, odd, you might say!
You might counter that, it is in fact the other numbers that look odd. Six with its bottom heaviness conforms more to our understanding of gravity, resembling more a pile of dirt than some of the other numbers. But it's also possible to say that 9, its inverse, is more a representation of gravity, perhaps evoking a stalactite or an icicle hanging from a ceiling, leading us back to six being the odd one.
The Math
(I am obviously not a mathematician, and don't even particularly enjoy maths, so the following section should be taken with a gallon of salt.)
When you divide six in half you end up with three, which is an odd number, but the other evens all divide to even numbers. Or in the case of two, divides to one, which is like the most even odd number, and a whole special case anyway!
After doing some searching around I have found that size is also something called a "Perfect Number". This is brand new information to me so please feel free to look it up your self. Wikipedia says a perfect number is: "a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its positive proper divisors that is, divisors excluding the number itself. For instance, 6 has proper divisors 1, 2, and 3, and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6, so 6 is a perfect number"
Have you got that? I think I just about follow. but its another argument for six being pretty odd! The article goes on to explain how the first seven perfect numbers are 6, 28, 496, 8128, 33550336, 8589869056, and 137438691328. So they are pretty rare things!
the ~ vibes ~
A shape with six sides is called a hexagon. Hexes or curses are supernatural, which is obviously very odd! This contributes to the odd vibes of six.
We of course have the association with 666, the so called number of the beast. A trio (odd number!) of sixes being the root of this contributes again to the strange vibes around six itself.
Henry VIII, King of England famously had six wives in his life time, and treated most of them pretty shoddily. No fault of the women involved of course, but the sense that six is bad or unlucky is someway has to a degree permeated the culture as a result.
I don't have synesthesia, but I'd be interested to hear from people that do about what they associate six with. Does it have a more odd-coded vibe to you? Let me know!
Okay, but what does all this mean?
I don't really know to be honest with you. I realise this might just seem like inane ramblings, and it might be that!
Perhaps it's an invitation to look at even the most mundane things with an eye of scepticism and a desire to flip things on their heads. What other insights could you glean from the world and the things closest to you?
For me it perhaps outlines the human ability to ascribe vibes and even a sense of personhood to not just inanimate objects but just the concept of things. I think that is such a wonderful ability. We have to be careful not to use it for ill, but I do think it is magical that given our species is (seemingly) the only one with consciousness in our known universe, that we want to share it with other beings (and concepts). Like how we are so lonely and looking for someone, or something else to share the universe with us that we see faces where there are no faces and see personalities where there can be none.
I think that's magical, and gives me hope for humanity.