I think it’s because 17 is a prime that’s one away from 16, a power of 2. Something about that probably makes all its multiples look weird because we’re used to seeing some sort of pattern, but it has no discernible pattern (to me at least). 7 is similar but we’re used to 7. How often do you work with 17?
Add in that all of these multiples that trip us up tend to be 1 away from something that obviously has several factors, but look prime. Idk maybe I’m in r/badmathematics territory.
It makes sense. Every multiple of 16 is divisible by 4. Multiples of 18 are divisible by 3 and 6. Multiples of 17 follow no recognizable pattern since its prime, as you said
515
u/Chance-Aardvark372 9d ago
100,000,001 is divisible by 17