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DrWatson · 70-79, M
I think a lot of responders are confusing "number" with "numeral."
For example, people seem to like the numeral for sixty nine. That is, the symbols we use to express that number apparently appeal to people who responded here, either because their shape denotes something sexual of because of the symmetries. But the actual number is not the symbol. For example, the ancient Romans would have written it as LXIX. Sixty nine pieces of silver meant the same thing to them as it does to us, and I am sure they practiced oral sex, but I don't think they would think sixty nine was a particularly interesting number.
The number is the quantity. The numeral is how we write the number. "69" and "LXIX" are two different numerals for the same number.
So the most beautiful number in the world, if there is such a thing, would be a number with beautiful mathematical properties. This would have nothing to do with what marks we make with pencil and paper to denote that number by a numeral.
For example, people seem to like the numeral for sixty nine. That is, the symbols we use to express that number apparently appeal to people who responded here, either because their shape denotes something sexual of because of the symmetries. But the actual number is not the symbol. For example, the ancient Romans would have written it as LXIX. Sixty nine pieces of silver meant the same thing to them as it does to us, and I am sure they practiced oral sex, but I don't think they would think sixty nine was a particularly interesting number.
The number is the quantity. The numeral is how we write the number. "69" and "LXIX" are two different numerals for the same number.
So the most beautiful number in the world, if there is such a thing, would be a number with beautiful mathematical properties. This would have nothing to do with what marks we make with pencil and paper to denote that number by a numeral.