The effectiveness and sheer familiarity of our number system embues us with a false confidence and with some inhibitions. We feel happier with a single whole number than with an arithmetical expression. For example, most people would rather talk about5969 than 47×127, although the two expressions represent the same thing. Only after‘working out the answer’,5969, do we feel thatwe‘have’the number and can look it in the eye. There is,however, an element of delusion in this as we have onlywritten the number as a sum of powers of ten. The general shape of the number and other properties can be inferred more from the alternative form where the number is broken down into a product of factors. To be sure, this standard form,5969, does allow direct comparison with other numbers that are expressed in the same waybut it does not reveal the full nature of the number. In Chapter 4, you will see one reason why the factorized form of a number can be much more precious than its base ten representation, which can keep vital factors hidden.