Is that math right?

It's Friday the 13th again and we still have one more to go in November. The triple 13 only happens every 11 years so I think we're pretty lucky to have it. I'm not a believer in the bad luck of the number 13, in fact I love the first Friday the 13th movie. the second one was OK and the 3d one was a bit hokey and I haven't seen any of the others because nothing beats Kevin Bacon getting an arrow through the back of his throat while relaxing after the gratuitous lovemaking scene.

Of all the crazy superstitions, this one has the most goofy behaviour surrounding it. Not having a room 13 in a hotel or hospital or no 13th floor in a tall building is ridiculous. Unless there's a gap in your building you have a 13th floor and just because you gave it number 14 doesn't change that.

I saw this in the paper today and found it interesting. The ill-fated Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 CST on Apr. 11, 1970. The sum of the date's digits (4-11-70) is 13 (as in 4+1+1+7+0 = 13). And the explosion that crippled the spacecraft occurred on April 13 (not a Friday). The crew did make it back to Earth safely, however.

You can make numbers do whatever you want, first there's the time. 13:13 CST, the mission was launched from Cape Canaveral Florida and they are on eastern time so it would have bee 14:14 on the clock. The sum of the digits would have been 23 (as in 4+1+1+1+9+7+0) unless it was actually the year 70 and not 1970. And if you're going to play the time zone card, depending on where you were on earth the explosion could have happened on April 14th.

People get crazy with their superstitions and this one is fun because it is based around numbers and as evidenced by the examples above you can do anything with them. For example, I was born in 1965 and I'll be 44 years old and I have 2 children. So with that you do this, (1+9+6+5=21) and (4x4=16) then (21x16=336) now (3x3+6=15) and finally (15-2=13). As you can plainly see, without my children I would be a very unlucky man. Wait, is that math right?