Today in a newsagent's

[marnanel]

Newsagent: That'll be £2.55, please.
Marn: Oh! Shame it's not £2.56.
Newsagent: Why?
Marn: Well, it's a square of squares. Four squared is sixteen, sixteen squared is 256. It's a very pleasing number.
Newsagent (obligingly): Well, you can pay £2.56 if you LIKE.
Marn: All right, then.
Newsagent: Well then, that'll be £2.56, please.

Comments

[simont]

When I was little I remember thinking 255 rather than 256 was the really important one of the two numbers for a long time – because it was the one that actually came up all the time in my experience, being the maximum x-coordinate on the Spectrum screen :-)

[marnanel]

me too, actually!

[treeowl]

Both of them are nice, really. Which you prefer depends on whether you like to count nodes or leaves.

[redbird]

That was good of them.

[marnanel]

I thought so too.