Treasure Island

Joe Rosochacki

3 (a not so poem about the number three but its intregration in society)

Three is a most important number in society both religious and secular.
1 If you place two dots you get a straight line if you place three dots you have your geometric figure. (Euclidean Geometry, -101 duh!)
2 There are three seen dimensions length, width, height.
3 There are three states of matter, gas, solid, liquid.
4 A tripod is used till today for cameras, a tricycle is used by very young people and older people as well. The use of a cane create a tripod of sorts
5 There are three definitions of time, past, present, future.
6 There are three primary colors.
7 There were/are three colors that were used on color tv’s (red, blue, green)
8 There are three colors that mixed to form a color picture in your printer,
(cyan, magenta, yellow) outside of black
9 We’ve (USA Americans as Caitlin Upton would say) have divided our sports, hockey (3 periods unless there is overtime, baseball 9 innings,3 outs each team commences an inning,12 or 15 minute quarters basketball and football, etc.)
10 There are three cultural symbols that are used in China, The Chinese Dragon, Fu dog and incense comprise three symbols within traditional Chinese culture.

(http: //

11 The Judaic symbol of the Star of David has two superimposed,
opposite facing equilateral triangles.
12 There are three pieces to an atom (excluding sub-atomic particles)
proton, neutron, electron.
For some of the above (1,2,3,4,5,6,10,11) reasons alone you have figure what 3 meant to early civilizations.
If add another dot you would have rectangle of some sort.
But then again you create two triangles with four points.
That is basis for fractal geometry.

(http: //

1 The Egyptian and Mayan pyramids are based on 4 points at the base resulting 4 sides that involve three sides.
2 Euclidian geometry is partially based triangles.

Therefore if multiply 4 x 3 = 12
3 A triangle has a180 degrees in it, circle has 360 degrees in it – divisible by 3
4 The whole numbers of PI (3.14159…) and a yard (3 feet) , meters (3ft.3 in.+) and
the first value of Golden Mean (is divisible by three) (Sometimes,1/ø (which is -1/2+sqr(5) /2 or 0.61803398875...) is called the golden ratio. http: //
Religious aspects that I know of.
1 There were 12 tribes of David
2 There were 12 apostles
3 There is the 12 days of Christmas before January 6th (The Day of Epiphany)
4 Christ was 12 years old when he taught in the Temple.
5 In Hinduism there were 12 Alvar’s (the twelve apostles)

(http: //

6 Even in the Koran:
6. The guards replied: 'Yes, he is in the temple now disputing with the doctors of the law.'

19. The chisel, line, the plummet and the saw all have their uses in the workshop of the mind. (4 objects mentioned)
20. And then this ladder with its trinity of steps, faith, hope and love; on it we climb up to the dome of purity in life. (3 altruistic creeds)

(http: //

The secular form of 12:
1 There 12 hours each, pm and am, one hour is divided into 60 minutes there divided 60 seconds and both the hour and second hand do one full circle as they sweep off time. Therefore longitude and latitude of the earth are equally divided in to degrees (longitude in 360 degrees, latitude 180 degrees North and South equally 90 degrees each) and minutes thereof. Our GPS systems are based upon this idea.
2 There are twelve months in a year according to Gregorian calendar we use.
3 There are twelve keys of western music.
4 There 12 Zodiac signs
The Chinese new year replaces the old animal with animal, there are 12 animals that
repeat in 12 years time.
5 There are 12 inches within a foot.
6 There are six sides to cube, each cube is four sided and cube contains 21 pips (also equally divided by 3)

And now for the Three’s:
1 Christ was thirty years old when went out to preach to the world.
2 Christ was sold for 30 pieces of silver.
3 Christ was 33 when he executed.
4 It took him 3 hours to die.
5 He rose from the dead after the third day.
6 The Holy Catholic Empire banned music that was not done in Tempus Perfectum
(perfect time) songs that were not sung in ¾ time, Tempus Imperfectum,
(imperfect time) .
7 Some of the “Ordinary” of the Mass had a indication of three
Kyrie Eleison (3x) Christe Eleison (3x) Kyrie Eleison (3x)
Lord have Mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, (Holy, Holy, Holy)
Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi misere nobis (2x)
(Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world have mercy on us)
Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi dona nobis pacem. (1x)
(Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world grant us peace)
http: //
8 The Holy Trinity
9 Matthew 26: 75 'And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him,
10 In Revelation in the New Testament the beast’s number is 666 also divisible by 3.
In the Renaissance period the musicians would get around this decree by the use of hemiola (http: //
(They would have a tune written in 3 and subdivide each measure in two) and the Sarabande http: //
was written in three beats per measure but the accent fell upon beat TWO! Instead of 1, (2,3) it was (1) 2, (3)
1 There are seven days in a week.
2 There were seven Ecclesiastical modes as codified by Pope Gregory
All found within Asia Minor (Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian, etc.)
3 There are seven distinct notes within a western scale before we reach an octave.
4 There are 7 wonders of the ancient world.
5 There seven pitch classes within a scale of western music.
(do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti for one example)
In religious terms:
1 The seven beatitudes. (http: //
2 The seven sins and the seven graces

(http: //
http: // .shtml#SevenGraces)

3 The seven churches in Revelation
4 'You shall then count seven 'perfect' weeks after the day following the (Passover) Holiday when you brought the Omer as an offering, until the day after the seventh week, when there will be a total of fifty days.' (Vayikra / Leviticus 23: 15)

(http: //

5 The following article on the website, written by Rabbi
Yaakov Salomon, should answer your question:
In the beginning... God created 7's.
affinity for the number 7.
The fact that the Torah begins with a verse containing 7 words
placed within the context of the overwhelming number of
associations in Judaism with '7', a fascinating tapestry begins
to unfurl.

(http: // ns_seven.htm)

So to summarize this observation, we have as a culture been affixed to numerology. Whether conscious or not we have been surrounded by 3’s and 4’s. I wonder how this observation will be judged.
Will it be cut into thirds and quarters?


Submitted: Saturday, May 09, 2009
Edited: Saturday, May 09, 2009

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  • Conor O Gara (10/28/2009 9:22:00 AM)

    very interesting joe! i am fascinated by numbers especially in threes! like 111,333,888,555 etc. check out my poem three and tell me what you think. thanks for the lesson! all the best. conor (Report) Reply

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