Six Science posts #96

Parabolas, carpet designs for space, fabulous flamingos and more

Author

Harshal Chhaya
November 16, 2025

Hi friend,

96 is a semiperfect number (a multiple of 6) but IMO, this issue #96 is perfect!

Agree? Disagree? Either way - let me know!

And share this with someone who might like to stay informed and entertained while learning.

Stay curious!

Love,

Harshal

#1 🤯 

What an image! 🤩 

Parabolas are all around us!

#2 🤯 

What an amazing engineering feat by the Blue Origin team! 🤩 

And just look at the scale! 😮 

There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see them

#3 🤯 

#4 🤯 

You think they were talking about us normies?

(also - very cool coincidence - I swear! - about this photo being part of issue #96. See below on why")

#5 🤯 

I love art that celebrates science!

#6 🤯 

Group names for animals are some of the most fun word associations in English.

“A blessing of Unicorns”, “a murder of crows” - I mean, come on! So fun! 😁 

This is issue #96. Let’s see what makes 96 an interesting number:

96 is:

  • rotationaly symmetric (i.e. strobogrammatic) in bases 10 (9610), 11 (8811) and 95 (1195).

  • palindromic in bases 11 (8811), 15 (6615), 23 (4423), 31 (3331), 47 (2247) and 95 (1195).

  • divisible by the number of prime numbers (24) below 96.

  • the smallest natural number that can be expressed as the difference of two nonzero squares in more than three ways:

    • 102 − 22 

    • 112 − 52 

    • 142 − 102 

    • 252 − 232 

  • an untouchable number - a positive integer that cannot be expressed as the sum of all the proper divisors of any positive integer.

    • 4 is not untouchable because it is the sum of the factors of 9 (4 = 1+3)

    • there is NO number whose factors add up to 96

  • the atomic number of “Curium” - a synthetic chemical element with symbol Cm

    • Most curium is produced by bombarding uranium or plutonium with neutrons in nuclear reactors – one tonne of spent nuclear fuel contains ~20 grams of curium.

    • The element was named after Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie, who are known for discovering radium and for their work in radioactivity

  • Ninety Six is a town in Greenwood County, South Carolina, United States. If you are interested to know more, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety_Six,_South_Carolina

About

This newsletter is my way of sharing interesting science-related news with my curious friends. I enjoy finding science and math connections in our world.

Please share this newsletter with others. Let’s encourage curiosity.

- Harshal (@hschhaya on X/Twitter)

That’s it for this issue.

Hit ‘reply’ to tell me what you think.

And hit ‘forward’ to share with your friends and family.

Let’s all celebrate science and engineering and curiosity.

Best wishes,

Harshal

Special past issues