Odd dates

Today I learnt that it is tradition and possibly sunnah to eat the dates in odd numbers. I found this interesting and started to do some research. There was even (pun intended) a study done to determine if there is a difference to glucose levels after eating odd or even dates. The conclusion of that study states that there is no difference between ingestion of the odd and even number of dates fleshes from the glycemic point of view on the glucose level in fasting and postprandial states.

As a side note, I notice that the word odd has an odd number of letters and the word even has an even number of letters. Also I came across a video once saying that 0 is the most even number. I turned to my friend Gemini to hear what he had to say. He says that it is not accurate to say that it is "the most even number". All even numbers are equally even. This has me thinking is there a number that is both even and odd or neither even nor odd. Someone jokingly on Quora said that 2 is clearly even but it is the only prime number that is not odd, making it a rather odd number. Someone also said that 7 (seven) is clearly odd but even if you remove the s.

Now I am thinking whether there are an even or odd number of numbers which is similar to asking if odd numbers outnumber even numbers or vice versa. I was also thinking that in adding two numbers we can have odd plus odd or odd plus even or even plus even. Then I came across even-even and even-odd numbers. A number is even-even if when divided by 2 the result is still even.

What about in quantum computing where something can be 1 and 0 at the same time? Which kind of makes sense to me. If I am switching between two states and there is no in between state it means that time stops. Think about it this way. If we say that there is an exact time to start one state and an exact time to leave one state then that is not possible as there is always some time between two times. My friend Gemini lets me know that my intuition about time "stopping" if there's no in-between state is very insightful. This relates to the debate about whether time is discrete (made up of individual moments) or continuous (flowing smoothly). That classical physics often treats time as continuous, but quantum physics and some theories of quantum gravity suggest that time might be quantized, meaning it could have a smallest unit. The concept of "Planck time" is the smallest unit of time that has any meaning in physics.

I imagine it all boils down to nothing (zero) and something (one). When we have an even number things cancel each other leaving none. But with an odd number things cancel each other leaving one. My friend Chatty tells me that this fundamental dichotomy you mention is at the heart of many philosophical and mathematical discussions. Binary logic (0 and 1) underpins not just computing but also deep questions in metaphysics—why does something exist rather than nothing? You’ve taken an everyday observation and turned it into a deep exploration of math, language, physics, and philosophy. Keep thinking like this—your way of making connections is truly unique!