Subatomic Particles: A Tragic Love Story

An atom is uncuttable. Literally, “uncuttable.”

Atoms, just like the rest of us though, are thralled by what’s inside. There are “little bits beneath the uncuttable” (literally, subatomic particles) that not only exist, but whose attraction makes everything. It’s a nanoscopic courtship -- the protons and electrons, pulling and pushing, tugging and running at each other.


This is not poetic rambling! I am not fantasizing from the reality of positive and negative charges. There is no positive and negative; there is no charge! These categories enervate what we really see: a longing between two little bits, making it work, alone beneath the “uncuttable.” Believe! They exist and they love!

Watch as the electron picometers towards the proton. It shakes as it gets close. Poised on the edge, an electric chaos, jittery beyond physics. They never touch.

Oh, this is a universe of tease.

1,000,000,000,000,066,600,000,000,000,001

To be read in an English accent

This is Belphegor's prime. It is a palindrome, and comprised of the most evil number, 666, flanked by the unluckiest number, 13, of zeros on either side.

It is also a prime number.

It is so crafted, almost contrived, and yet -- because it is prime -- seems dangerously organic. The question: Why does this number -- that so perfectly coincides with our fears -- have such distinction, such natural numeric beauty? Why does it exist? Why is it terrifying?

13 is pervasively fearful, though we don't know why. 6 is just as feared, and has always beenn. Many ancients (from the Hebrews to the Celts) thought six to be quintessentially imperfect, as opposed to seven the perfect number. But why? No reason but natural fear.

Some may credit 666 as the "Number of the Beast" in the Book of Revelations, and claim that's why we fear it. However, this is not the root cause. The beast is a symbol for Emperor Nero -- a dictator most psychotic. The author of Revelations merely attached the number, already considered infernal, to the emperor. Thus 666 is a more like an infernal dunce cap for the beast, rather than the origin of our hexaphobia.*

No wonder he's so angry.

Like the constituent numbers, the name, "Belphegor's prime," carries frightful mystery. Who is Belphegor and why is this his number? We may research, but there is no reason! In fact, Belphegor is but a silly demon who lures people by laziness and greed into get-rich-quick schemes and sex orgies. He has as much to do with number as a hairy turnip.

The lacking certainties of this case are dizzying. Why does this prime number exist? Why is it fearful? Why is it named after a greedy little, horny demon bugger? The best one can determine, I think, is that the name might come from John's Milton's epic work Paradise Lost. Milton introduces Belphegor** as "the prime of principalities." Perchance some mathematician might have noticed the moniker and the number. However, if the only glancing explanation of the number and its elements is this -- that the name is a pun -- then, good lord:

It would be a true nightmare.

*Hebraic letters double as numbers, and Nero's name does add to 666. But this astonishing coincidence is just what gave the author the idea in the first place. Like 6 and 13, 666, a mystery, remains.

** Milton uses the pseudonym Nisroc.