National Yellow Pig Day is marked annually on July 17 to honor the unique attributes of the number 17 and its significance in mathematics.

This day was started by two math students from Princeton in the 1960s. The students – Michael Spivak and David C. Kelly – are said to have become obsessed with the number 17, and created the concept of a yellow pig with 17 toes and 17 teeth. However, it is unclear why the day is called Yellow Pig Day or what a yellow pig has to do with the number 17.

Here are some of the properties and facts about 17:

1. Seventeen is a premium number in the arena of prime numbers. Add the first four prime numbers together, and 17 is their sum. The sum of any other 4 consecutive prime numbers will be even, and thus won't be prime.

2. The average school bus weighs 17 tons with passengers inside.

3. The atomic number of chlorine is 17.

4. It is also the smallest number that is the sum of two powers of 4 (1+16=17)

5. For a solvable game of the popular number puzzle Sudoku to be completed it must have at least 17 different clues.

Here are some of the ways to mark this day:

  • See how many times you find the number 17 in the newspaper on July 17
  • Do 17 jumping jacks
  • Do 17 acts of kindness during the day
  • Sing Yellow Pig carols
  • Brush up on your mathematics to find cool facts about the number 17
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