Albert Einstein once observed: “I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
What is it about the number 100 that so resonates with people? Einstein was a great scientist, not somebody one might casually accuse of superstition or even sloppy thinking. Nevertheless, he chose 100. Why not 98 or 47? And it’s not just the scientists, is it?
If Einstein was one of the greatest scientists ever, so Dante was one of the greatest poets who’s ever lived. In his piece “The Divine Comedy,” we find that the masterwork has exactly 100 cantos and finishes on the 100th step. This is quite surprising when you consider that the poem is in three parts, and each part is 33 cantos long; clearly, 3 times 33 makes only 99 cantos. But Dante inserted an introductory canto—a personal preface to the first volume, “The Inferno.” It explains how he has come to this point of being about to enter Hell proper—making a total of 34 cantos, giving a total of 100.
It is not just in the West that the number seems charged and significant. In Chinese culture, the number 100 is auspicious and symbolizes completeness, prosperity, and longevity. The phrase “a hundred years of harmonious union” is often used to bless couples on their wedding day. Another expression refers to “the hundred schools of thought contending” and signifies a diversity of intellectual discourse and debate. And in ancient Greece, the centenary (a period of 100 years) was a significant unit of time, often marked by celebrations or commemorations. The Romans used the Greeks’ concept of the century for their military and political organization. The centurion, for example, was the captain of a hundred men.
If we stop for a moment to consider the number 100 in our own culture, we find it everywhere. In finance, the cent is one-hundredth of a dollar. In time, the century is always considered an epoch-defining period—the 19th century is not the same as the 20th century. In mathematics, 100 percent is a defining idea for expressing fullness as well as the fact that our numbering system is largely decimal. In temperature, we measure in Celsius and the freezing and boiling point of water—the substance on which life depends—ranges from 0 to 100 degrees. In physics, we have the measurement of a centimeter. Even in biology, we fine the many-footed centipede.
The centenarian is the person who lives to 100, always considered a massive achievement, and in the UK, every centenarian receives a personal letter of congratulation from the monarch. More frivolously, the Billboard 100 music chart is the ultimate place for musicians and singers to be! We could go on, list more examples of this phenomenon, but we don’t need to. A moment’s thought tells us that 100 is a crucial number, but why?
Why 100 Is Magical
The most likely reason that counting numbers on a base of 10 has become dominant is due to the fact that we have 10 fingers, and on this primary and intuitive basis, we count things out on our fingers. Of course, 100 is 10 times 10. To the Pythagoreans, the followers of Pythagoras (circa 570 B.C.–495 B.C.), 100 was the “divinely divine” number: Not only is it the square of 10, but it is also the sum of the cubes of the first four numbers:Not only that, 100 is also the sum of the first 10 odd numbers and the sum of the first nine prime numbers:
1+3+5+7+9+11+13+15+17+19 = 100
2+3+5+7+11+13+17+19+23 = 100
So what? The great minds of ancient Greece considered this to be evidence of cosmic structure, of numbers being intelligible, and of rationality itself. Things made sense, could be counted, and furthermore, certain numbers had special, revelatory properties.
In the first instance, 10 itself—as we move from the single digits of 1 to 9—indicated completeness by the addition of a zero to the digit.
Moving from mathematics to religion, we ask, what is probably the single most important example of the number 10 in the Western world? Clearly, the Mosaic law of the 10 Commandments. There may well be over 600 commandments in the Torah of God to the Israelites, but it is the 10 Commandments on which the whole of their morality and ethics turn.
As we move from the single digit of 9 to the double digits of 10, we reach completion—two full hands, with no fingers missing. Then, if we square the number 10, we move to the first three-digit number, 100. Three is a divine number itself: the “trinity” of gods that we find universally, but especially in Christianity. But here, perhaps, at the mythical level, we find the power of the number 100.
In numerological, psychological, and theological terms, the number 1 stands for aloneness, self-determination, and independence. But if we add 0 to the 1 to make 10, what does the 0 represent? It’s a circle—infinity—it represents wholeness, self-sufficiency, and infinite potential. Thus, the numbers 1 and 0 combined are rather like yoking yang (strong independence) with yin (infinite potential), a marriage of opposites that produces fullness and completion. By squaring the number, the infinity of zero is doubled but still led by the number 1. We have then complete completeness, 100 percent-ness, cup-runneth-over to fullness, all that we want and desire!
