A couple of weeks ago I went to the BBC Good Food Show at Birmingham NEC with my husband, Howard. This was my first ever visit and I had no idea what to expect. One thing that I did expect (which didn’t happen) was that I’d buy a whole lot of food. To this end I took a rucksack and put a lighter one inside for Howard. As it happened, I bought two light things – some white pepper and some herbal tea – and Howard bought some turmeric. The only heavy thing we bought was some gin for a friend.
Much of our time was sitting listening to people being interviewed. We loved Tom Kerridge and Andi Oliver particularly. I tried an oyster – I’ve had one before but didn’t enjoy it so this time was determined that I was going to make some progress. I would definitely have one again but they are an acquired taste and I am not at the position where I’m fully appreciating it yet.
We ate some delicious pierogis from a firm who send frozen pierogis mail order. The pepper stall was very interesting. The pepper is grown in Cambodia and the company aims to help the local economy. Other high quality goods with this aim are also sold from around the world. There were three types of pepper – black, white and red. I’d never heard of red before. Funnily enough, after sampling all the pepper, I found that my ability to taste was heightened. After the pepper stall I went on to taste some beer which was flavoured with honey. I could taste the honey very strongly.
Anyway, what has all this got to do with numbers? Well, in 2019 the BBC Food Festival celebrated its 30th year. For this post, therefore, 30 will be the number to focus on.
Now comes the part of the post where I use a number to take me to a destination which could be anywhere in the world. I’ll spend a little time looking at the destination and consider whether I’d like to go. I love this part of the post as more often than not the destinations are not those I would otherwise have considered. Where will 30 take me?
Quite often airlines provide a good method of identifying locations. Flight Ryanair FR30 goes to Heraklion in Crete and, therefore Heraklion will form the destination for this post.
Heraklion
What do I know about Heraklion? I visited Crete twice as a teenager with my family – once when I was 17 and once when I was 18. On both occasions we arrived at Heraklion airport and we drove straight out of the cit in a hire car. The first time we stayed in a villa in an olive grove near a beach and the second we stayed in one of three villas on top of a hill with a pool with a 360 degree view. We visited Knossos and I walked the Samaria Gorge with my Dad. We spent no time at all in Heraklion and I’m really interested to know what the city has to offer and whether I’d like to go.
Out of all the things to do in Heraklion that are mentioned in this article I’d like to visit the harbour, go on a cruise, go on a cycling tour around the city, go wine-tasting and go on a safari. There are some interesting-looking museums and churches too. I certainly would not be bored.
I like the usual Greek food – meze, moussaka, salad, chargrilled lamb, marinated skewered meat. I’m not so sure about some of the dishes on this list but no doubt Howard would try everything and I could have a little bit.
A lot of the cycling in Crete seems to be on a mountain bike although you can take a historical tour around the city.
There are oodles of restaurants and we’d be spoilt for choice. I think I’d give Heraklion about 8/10 as to whether I’d visit or not. Until reading about it I thought it was just a dirty airport city and had never considered visiting before.
Coprime Numbers
The number 30 has a particularly interesting property: it is the largest number such that all coprimes smaller than itself, except for 1, are prime.
So, what is a coprime? Two numbers are described as comprimes when they have no common factors other than 1. In other words there is no whole number that you could divide them both by exactly.
21 and 22 are coprime as follows:
• The factors of 15 are 1, 3, 5 and 15
• The factors of 22 are 1, 2, 11 and 22
(the only common factor is 1)
But 22 and 28 are NOT coprime:
• The factors of 22 are 1, 2, 11 and 22
• The factors of 28 are 1, 2, 4, 7 and 28
(the common factors are 1 AND 2)
Also called “relatively prime” or “mutually prime”.
We will now check all the coprimes with 30 that are smaller – these are shown in bold and underlined below.
30: Factors 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, 30
29: Factors 1, 29
28: Factors 1, 2, 4, 7, 28
27: Factors 1, 3, 9, 27
26: Factors 1, 2, 13, 26
25: Factors 1, 5, 25
24: Factors 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24
23: Factors 1, 23
22: Factors 1, 2, 11, 22
21: Factors 1, 3, 7, 21
20: Factors 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20
19: Factors 1, 19
18: Factors 1, 3, 6, 18
17: Factors 1, 17
16: Factors 1, 2, 4, 8, 16
15: Factors 1, 3, 5, 15
14: Factors 1, 2, 7, 14
13: Factors 1, 13
12: Factors 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12
11: Factors 1, 11
10: Factors 1, 2, 5, 10
9: Factors 1, 3, 9
8: Factors 1, 2, 4, 8
7: Factors 1, 7
6: Factors 1, 2, 3, 6
5: Factors 1, 5
4: Factors 1, 2, 4
3: Factors 1, 3
2: Factors 1, 2
You can see from above that each coprime of 30 under 30 (29, 23, 19, 17, 13, 11, 7) is itself prime.
Last thoughts
I do love my food and there’s quite a lot about food in this post. Numbers are also a big thing with me and I enjoyed learning about coprimes and the special property the number 30 has. I’d like to go back to Crete one day and, if I do, I’ll certainly spend some time in Heraklion. Writing these posts is of great benefit to me and I hope you enjoy them. If there’s a number you’d like me to feature in one of these post then please comment below.