The First Power of Six - First Appearances

I've been interested in numbers my whole life. The first thing I wanted to do in any foreign language I learned was to learn how to count. It is no surprise then that I majored in Mathematics in college. Unlike a couple of web cartoonists I know, I really enjoyed differential equations, although I must confess that I don't remember taking it. However, it's on my transcript, and I have the textbook, so I must have. I immersed myself in it in graduate school, but that's another story.

I started noticing, especially during Surreptitious Machinations, that the number six plays an important part in the GPF universe. It is clear that all of the UGA agents have numbers that are evenly divisible by six, but it is interesting to note that the number six didn't start there. It started with the debut of the comic, on November 2, 1998. Now, 1998 is divisible by six. Also, November is the 11th month of the year, and as most geeks know, 11 is 3 in binary, and 3, when multiplied by the date (2), is 6.

With that one fateful move, the stage has been set. The number six started popping up everywhere over the next six years. The first instance we see of the number six is when Fooker installs six versions of solitaire on Nick's machine during his first week at GPF. However, I'd like to concentrate more on when the major characters joined, and how they all can be tied to the number six. So, here are the top 21 (2 + 1 = 3, which is half of 6), as listed by the statistics received from the Faultie Circuit.
  1. Ki Oshiro first appeared on November 18, 1998. As we can see, 18 is divisible by 6. If you really want to take it a step further, November, again, is the 11th month, 11 is 3 in binary, and 3 x 18 is 54, which is also divisible by 6. Its result, 9, is just 6 upside-down.
  2. Nick Wellington first appeared on November 2, 1998, which is the same date that the comic started, so I'm not going to go through the math again.
  3. Jason "Fooker" Barker first appeared on November 6, 1998. How apropos, since he was later revealed to be agent 6. Again, there's a 6 for the date, but we can again take November (11) as 3, and multiply it by 6 and get 18, which of course will be divisible by 6.
  4. Trudy Trueheart first appeared on December 29, 1998. Now, December is the 12th month, which is divisible by 6, and 29 can be taken as 2 x 9, which is 18 and divisible by 6. However, instead of multiplying 12 by 18, let's just add the two and get 30, which is also divisible by 6.
  5. Dwayne Duncan first appeared on the first day of the comic, November 2, 1998. See Nick (#2) above.
  6. Sharon Murphy first appeared on March 10, 2001. Now, the date, 10, is 2 in binary and March is the 3rd month. Thus, 2 x 3 is 6. If you insist on bringing the year into it, 2 + 0 + 0 + 1 is 3, and 3 x 6 is 18, which is divisible by 6.
  7. Dr. Fredrick "Fred" Physarum first appeared on December 2, 1998. Again, December is the 12th month, and thus 12 x 2 is 24, which is divisible by 6.
  8. Dexter J. Smith first appeared on December 8, 1999. December is the 12th month, and 1 + 2 is 3, and 3 x 8 is 24, which is divisible by 6. As far as the year goes, (1 + 9) x (9 x 9) is 810, which is divisible by 6.
  9. Todd Wellington first appeared on November 11th, 2001. November is the 11th month, and 11 is 3 in binary, and 1 + 1 is 2. 3 x 2 is 6. As far as the year goes, 200 in base 3 is 18 base 10. Thus, 200 x 1 (base 3) is 18 (base 10).
  10. Trenton "Trent" N. Terrell first appeared on March 2, 2000. March is the 3rd month, and 3 x 2 is 6. 2000 in base 3 is 54 base 10, which is divisible by 6.
  11. Nicole Duncan first appeared on September 12, 2000. September is the 9th month, and 9 x 12 is 108, which is divisible by 6. Again, 2000 base 3 is 54 base 10.
  12. Professor Otto "Uncle Wise" Wisebottom first appeared on May 24, 1999. May is the 5th month, and 5 x (2 + 4) is 30, which is divisible by 6. As far as the year goes, 1 x [9 + (9 x 9)] is 90, which is divisible by 6.
  13. Yoshi Oshiro first appeared on October 2, 2000. October is the 10th month and 10 + 2 is 12, which is divisible by 6. And again, 2000 base 3 is 54 base 10.
  14. Maddie O'Hara (Agent #12) first appeared on February 11, 2002. February is the 2nd month and 11 is 3 in binary, and 2 x 3 is 6. As far as the year goes, 20 + 0 - 2 is 18, which is divisible by 6.
  15. Persephone first appeared on May 22, 1999. May is the 5th month of the year, and 5 x 2 + 2 is 12, which is divisible by 6. When looking at the year, (1 x 9 x 9) + 9 is 90, which is divisible by 6.
  16. Empress Trudy Trueheart first appeared on November 24, 2001. November is the 11th month, and 11 x 24 is 264, which is divisible by 6. The year, 2001, can broken up as 200 (base 3), which is 18 (base 10), thus 200 x 1 (base 3) is 18 (base 10).
  17. Dr. Nefarious first appeared on May 22, 2001... exactly two years after Persephone (#15 above). So, you can see #15 for the calculation of the days, and #16 for the calculation of the year.
  18. Charles "Chuck" Walker first appeared on August 2, 1999. August is the 8th month, and 8 - 2 is 6. You have seen enough calculations of the year 1999 at this point.
  19. The Gamester first appeared on June 24, 2000. June is the 6th month and 6 and 24... well, 'nuff said. 2000 base 3 is 54 base 10.
  20. Sydney Nicole Duncan first appeared on August 17, 2001. August is the 8th month, and 7 - 1 is 6, and 6 x 8 is 48.
  21. Mischief first appeared on June 26, 2000. June is the 6th month, and 6 x (2 + 6) is also 48.
And there you have it. All the major characters are tied into the number 6. In future installments, I will explore more phenomena of the number 6 within the strip that's known as General Protection Fault.

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