A Curious Mathematical Problem
Some time ago, while I was out shopping for flowers in preparation for Shavuot, a peculiar incident occurred. While correcting a stranger on a trivial matter, he produced a scrap of paper and scribbled down a simple multiplication problem. Handing it to me, and providing a few additional instructions, his actions piqued my curiosity so I complied. However, even after working out the problem with a pencil, I could not seem to grasp any meaning in the numbers that w…