Thoughts on Highly Divisible Numbers

Those Sumerians did a heck of a job with their base 12 number system. Really, 12 is just better than 10. 10 is divisible by only 2, 5, and 10, which means only even numbers and numbers with 5 and 0 in the units digit have a readily apparent repeating pattern for divisibility. For 12, there are 2, 3,4,6, and 12 itself are even divisors. In base 12, all numbers that end in 3,6,9 or 0 are divisible by 3. The same is true for 4 with 4, 8, and 0.

Anyway, highly composite numbers have more factors than any smaller number. For instance, 6 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, and 6. No smaller number has 4 factors. 12 has five factors. 24 has six factors. 36 has seven factors! 48 has EIGHT factors. All this to say… these are better numbers for making tables. For the sudden death quizzes, by using these highly composite numbers, your answer grid will likely end up having a beautifully uniform grid layout on any device, since they’re divisible by 3, 4, and 6. So I say, stop using 15, 20, 30, or 50 answers! Follow the Sumerian example and use 12, 24, or 36, or 48!!! (Or if you want to be epic, use 60. The Sumerians probably made 60 seconds in a minute because it was divisible by 2,3,4,6,10,12,15,20, and 30!!! Or even more epic, 2520, which is divisible by all numbers 1-10!).