Fun math geek question:

[Disaffected]

What is unique about the number 26?

And no, not the mystic/psychic 26 stuff.

[tblue37]

1. I looked it up, but I won't give out spoilers. nt

[Disaffected]

2. Yeah,

no fair Googling.

[tblue37]

3. I couldn't have played on this field anyway, but my curiosity is insatiable, so I just HAD to

know the answer, and my patience is limited, so I had to know it right away.

[Disaffected]

4. That's quite all right as it a bit of an unfair question:

i.e. if you don't already know the answer or can't look it up, the odds of coming up with the answer independently are pretty low for virtually anyone, even a mathematician, I would guess.

[unblock]

5. Underdefined problem

26 is uniquely the largest integer less than 27

It's also uniquely the smallest integral multiple of 13 greater than 13.

But that's probably not what you had in mind....

[Disaffected]

9. No,

it's something a little neater than that.

[Brother Buzz]

6. Total points in a hand of hearts?

I ain't got nothing.

[NightWatcher]

7. It's the only whole number between 25 and 27?

[TreasonousBastard]

11. That's close to one answer...

26 is the only number between a square number and a cube number.

But that's probably not the expected answer.

[Disaffected]

13. Yes,

that's it!

Now, for extra points, prove it.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. You wanted that one? I thought you were going for the Rubiks Cube...

but I can't prove either one.

[Disaffected]

12. Heh,

there is that about it alright.

[Cirque du So-What]

8. I know the answer

but I am a math geek and want to give others a chance. Suffice to say, it's unique among integers.

[Ptah]

10. BDR 529

[Disaffected]

15. ??

Black Diamond Riders motorcycle club of Toronto, Canada at 529 Jarvis Street?

[Ptah]

16. No, it has to do with Illinois Nazis

[PJMcK]

17. How did you know...

...my age when I married wife no. 1?

Big mistake on my part.

[Major Nikon]

18. It's the only number that follows 25 and is before 27

[NNadir]

19. It's the first even product of a two digit Fibonacci number; it is the second two digit...

...number to have a sum of digits that is a perfect cube: the second even number to factor into a two digit prime number; it is the first number to come between a perfect square and a perfect cube...

Are any (or all) of these "right?"

[Disaffected]

20. Not sure about the first ones but

26 is the only number to come between a square and a cube.

It's the only that I find particularly intriguing.

[NNadir]

21. It seems intuitively reasonable, but I'm not sure there proof that it is the ONLY such number.

There probably is such a proof, but if so, I'm unaware of it.

[Disaffected]

22. Try here:

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/874226/proof-that-26-is-the-one-and-only-number-between-square-and-cube

I can't verify it but it sounds reasonable.