The valley I live in is often the worst place in the country for air pollution. Of course, when we register our cars we have to prove that the car passes the state’s emissions test. Naturally, it sounds like a good idea. In the past, our cars have always passed their emissions tests, but this year I want to rant about how POLLUTING the emissions test can be.

Two and half weeks before our car registration was due, I took our Honda Civic in for the emissions test. It didn’t pass. It didn’t fail either. I was simply told that the car was not ready for the test. We hadn’t driven it enough. I listened in disbelief. “Drive it around some more and come back,” the service person told me. Something on the car was reset the last time I took the car in for a repair or maintenance, so now the car needs more miles on it to be ready for the test.

We drove the car around and had it checked two more times before we left for Europe, but the car still wasn’t ready. Every place we went the weekend before we left, we took that car. Then I asked a neighbor to drive it some the two weeks we were gone. She didn’t drive it much, but we’ve put about 100 miles on the car since we’ve returned. I took it in to get checked again today. It still isn’t ready.

It’s hot outside. There hasn’t been much rain. There is a wildfire close enough that we can smell the smoke. The mountains in the distance look faded. This is not the time for us to needlessly add more pollutants to the air as we drive it around just to make the car ready for the test.  All cars pollute the air. Everyone in the area is encouraged to carpool or combine trips to try to keep the pollution lower. We, on the other hand, need to drive our car aimlessly around just to put more miles on it so hopefully, the car will be ready for the emissions test. I have a very difficult time doing that, so instead of driving it around, I’m sitting at my computer ranting. The car needs to pass the test by Tuesday or we will have to pay for another test. This whole thing is a waste of time, gasoline, and money. Meanwhile, we couldn’t register our car, so potentially we could get in trouble for driving a car that isn’t registered, too.

Writing about the number 1114 should be a much more pleasant subject than car emissions!

• 1114 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 1114 = 2 × 557
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 1 and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (1 + 1)(1 + 1) = 2 × 2 = 4. Therefore 1114 has exactly 4 factors.
• Factors of 1114: 1, 2, 557, 1114
• Factor pairs: 1114 = 1 × 1114 or 2 × 557
• 1114 has no square factors that allow its square root to be simplified. √1114 ≈ 33.37664

33² + 5² = 1114

1114 is the hypotenuse of a Pythagorean triple:
330-1064-1114 calculated from 2(33)(5), 33² – 5², 33² + 5²

1114 is the sum of 10 consecutive primes and 6 consecutive primes:
89 + 97 + 101 + 103 + 107 + 109 + 113 + 127 + 131 + 137 = 1114,
and 173 + 179 + 181 + 191 + 193 + 197 = 1114

1114 is palindrome 4E4 in BASE 15 (E is 14 base 10)
because 4(15²) + 14(15) + 4(1) = 1114