What's in a number?

• 31.08.2012 07:30 UTC+02:00
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On the death of Jerry Nelson, the man behind Sesame Street's Count von Count, it appears that the Count's favourite number is 34,969. Apparently this is a square root thing, which was assumed to mean that 187—the square root of 34,969—is significant; as opposed to 1,222,830,961, of which 34,969 is the square root, and for which I've always had a soft spot…it's the amount of money that I'd like to have in my bank account.

Anyhow, reasons suggested by listeners of BBC Radio's More Or Less programme for the choice of 187 included:

• the total number of tiles in a Scrabble game;
• the product of two primes—11 and 17—with 34,969 therefore being the multiple of 11² and 17²;
• 94² minus 93², as well as the sum of 94 and 93; and
• the American police code for murder.

I rather liked the second, and particularly the third. And I'm sure the Count would approve.