The number zero was the the number that enabled the denominational number system and therefore the basis on which modern mathematics was built. Numerous old cultures did not have an equivalent for the zero like for instance the Romans.
Its origin and thus the origin of the decimal system dates back to India in the 3rd century before Christ. Back then the numeric symbol however was different for every order of magnitude.
The number zero has quite a few specific attributes. It is a “neutral” element of the addition, as a zero added to any sum does not change the value of the sum. It is also called an “absorbing” element in a multiplication as everything multiplied by zero is zero. The division by zero is not yet described and thus stays undefined in mathematics.
This number ϕ is also known as the golden section and is commonly accepted as an expression that describes the perfect proportions in architecture or anatomy. In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. The golden ratio is a mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887.
e the Euler’s number is named after the Mathematician Leonhard Euler who lived in the 18th century. It is foremost used to describe growth processes like for example the growth of bacterial cultures.
The mathematical constant e is the unique real number such that the function ex has the same value as the slope of the tangent line, for all values of x. More generally, the only functions equal to their own derivatives are of the form Cex, where C is a constant.
The numerical value of e truncated to 20 decimal places is 2.71828 18284 59045 23536….
In the preparation of the Google IPO the company announced it wants to raise $2,718,281,828.
PI is the most famous quotient in Mathematics and often described as the most beautiful number in the universe.
Pi or π is a mathematical constant that represents the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, which is the same as the ratio of a circle’s area to the square of its radius. It is approximately equal to 3.14159. Pi is one of the most important mathematical constants: many formulae from mathematics, science, and engineering involve π.
A team of Japanese mathematicians headed by Yasumasa Kanada in 2003 rendered the number to the record of 1.241 billion digits a number so big that it would fill a book 135 times as thick as the Eiffel tower is high. It would take 40.000 years to read it out loud.
Since Pythagoras the number 5 is called the perfect number of the human microcosm. Symbol of this harmony is the Pentagram. Aristotle added a fifth element to the 4 elements of ancient Greek nature studies – the Ether. From this derived “quintessential” in its origin the life generating spirit amongst Alchemists and later in the meaning of the central part of most importance.
The number five is also the holy number of of discordianism a jocular pseudo religion made popular through Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminates books. The followers of this religion pray to Eris, the Greek goddess of dissension.
The discordian law states that everything that happens in the universe has a connection to 5 or a multiple of five.
The number 7 has a special place in various cultures based on its relative frequency. Scientific experiments have shown how favorable this number is chosen by participating humans. It is the most frequently selection if people are asked to name their favorite number. As blue is as often chosen as the favorite color the phenomenon is also called “blue-seven” phenomenon.
Another finding by the cognition psychologist John Locke in the 17th century shows that in human perceptivity most people could remember 7 objects after a brief look at them.
Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything – see the bible – ehrm the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
“Six by nine. Forty two.”
“That’s it. That’s all there is.”
The number 47 appears in unnaturally high frequency in almost every episode of Star Trek: The next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. The reason being that Joe Menosky one of the series authors was a member of the 47 Society at the Pomona College in California – its members believed that the number 47 does appear much more frequently in nature than any other natural number.
The origin of this theory is believed to date back to 1964 when a mathematical theory by Professor Donald Bentley showed that all numbers equal 47.
According to Rick Berman, a co inventor of Star Trek 47 is 42 corrected by the inflation rate.
666 does play a special role in mystic and the occult that are well known and documented. But one of the meanings that recently came to more attention is the one related to the internet. In Hebrew the number 6 equals the letter W. So 666 could be seen as WWW – and thus the internet would be the last emperor. Other more recent interpretations include the name of “Wiliam Gates III”, “MS-DOS” or “Windows 95″ where you can get to 666 with divers numerical operations.
43252003274489856000 is the total number of configurations of the Rubik cube.
This number is called a Googol. The terminus was established by Edward Kasner. He did allegedly ask his nephew to come up with a name. The number did not only help Google to its name but also the cinema is Springfiled – the Simpsons one – called Googolplex.
Googolplex is the number 10^Googol. The Google offices are called Googleplex based on this.
Named after the American mathematician Ronald L. Graham born in 1936. According to the Guinness Book of Records the Grahams Number is the biggest number ever used in a mathematic proof.
Fantasticatillion is the number needed to calculate the assets of SCROOGE McDuck. (Sorry for the Donald Duck)
Los 13 números más famosos y su historia…
Curiosidades sobre el 0, ϕ (Phi), e o número de Euler, π (Pi), el 5, el 7, el 42, el 47, el 666, el 43252003274489856000, el 10^100 o googol, el número de Graham y hasta el fantasticatillón (número necesario para calcular la riqueza del tío del …
Avagadro\’s number
Coulomb
Plank\’s constant
Alpha (universal constant)
c, the speed limit.
i – or the square root of -1, since everything is an iGadget or eWidget, these days.
There\’s several more in physics and electronics that could have been used.
867-5309?
How I wish I could calculate pi
3 , 1 4 1 5 9 2
Bye
But how does the computer know that it is supposed to count the exclamation marks too to make it a total of 42 letters? after all the question was presented orally…
There’s something fundamentally wrong with this theory
5 is not the Perfect number. 6 is the Perfect number. A perfect number must be the sum of it’s factors. e.g. 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.
The size comparisons on pi are way way off. 1.241 billion digits would only fill a book around 72 meters high (not 135 times the height of the Eiffel tower) and take around 20 years to read (not 40,000 years) at the rate of 2 digits per second which is quite slow. I’m always amazed at how wrong comparisons often are.
i think 420 is the most important number ever.
[...] » The 13 most famous Numbers and their stories The Antic Muse how excellent!!!! (tags: history math fun odd weird facts education mathematics numbers) [...]
I heard that 86 started as a mob term, meaning 8 miles out and six feet under.
Probably started by a murderous quibbling dork.
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I can’t believe you left out 92214563780560366130661709445338835634. It’s much more famous than some of these other numbers you chose.
0, 1,666,16,21, 86,42, 69[my age]…yes all very important numbers…But enough ranting… Lets deal with something serious..ie..War..Love..Sunshine..Sex.. Have fun!
I like them but I prefer 4 8 15 16 23 42. I’m lost now to explain why.
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what about 786? huh huh!
i’ll leave u to research that one on your own
786
Technically the number in the bible is 616 in most reliable translations, and is the numerical representation of Nero.
There is no basis for saying that 1 googol is the number of atoms in the universe, as scientists have yet to calculate the number of STARS in the universe, let alone numbers.
by the way, perhaps I\’m completely remiss here, and it was a joke, but how can you list the \”13 most famous numbers\” and not even include 13 on that list?
Let’s not forget that fateful number forever inscribed into our daily life, 9-11. Taken to extreme everywhere.
I understand the joke. But I don’t like seeing the graham number (after traying so hard to get a feel of how big it is) as the second largest number!
Maybe you missed 11 -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11:11_(numerology)
4 8 15 16 23 42 108
pryrr93
Whoa! is not the most precious number of all time be that which you can only ask others to perceive?
The number three has to be one of the most inspiring. The sign of completion et.al.
4 8 15 16 23 42
Very nice. I learned some new ones. We should not be intimidated by those who are demanding their own favorite, or who read your post wrong.
So, I have a tip (from a very reliable source): The origin of the name of Type42 fonts is … yes you guessed it.
You wisely omitted the four or five numbers that govern the shape of our universe: the speed of light, the gravitational constant, etc. Another post maybe?
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Wow ! I never knew my birthday that is 5th nov is such a good number. Thanks for telling me this
I believe that 1 Fantasticatillion is actually the amount that Donald Ducks UNCLE is worth.
what about avagadro’s number
BR549?
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Haven’t had as much fun all this year. Who’d have thunk numbers would generate such a wealth of wisdom, despite those who comment
without having read earlier, similar posts (like, Avogadro’s #).
Truth be said, man and woman are inventive and can probably find reasons for ANY number being interesting. After all, even an uninteresting number is interesting in its own right.
37 is my favorite but I have noticed that 7 apears alot like if you gess anumber between 1 and 10 you seem to win more regularly if you gess 7 very intresting.
Adding to the list of people who say “d’oh, you meant SCROOGE McDUCK!”
And let us not forget 1 – which is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do. Though 2 can be as lonely as one. And 3 is a magic number, according to Schoolhouse Rock.
I agree with an earlier sentiment: Where is i? The square root of negative 1 is highly significant, or was in my junior year math class.
The only one that matters here is 42.
“I may be a pretty sad person, but I don’t make jokes in base 8.” ~DNA
From 1085 to 0486 concerning 111066 and 121066 (hpc) 519 was the most important, memorable number remaining true for 111066 until ∞.
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SCROOGE McDuck! GRRRRRR, blog post ruined.
Ehhh…..Six By Nine doesnt equal 42 but Six By Seven does…
The assumption that can be such a thing as Zero,0,nothing or whatever is fundamentally flawed.
There is no such thing as nothing.
This wouldn’t matter except for the fact that it has invaded all our mathematics,especially our computer system,and in my opinion has led to minor discrepancies in all our calculations,especially with regard to the universe.
bowcock
DIS-CORD-I-AN-ISM
Pretty easy. Real religion. Discordianism. Discordia.
Hail Eris. And yeah.
People see what they want. You can take any number and make it whatever you need.
Hate to break it to you but pi is a constant, not a quotient. It can be expressed as a quotient.
you mean discordianism on 5?
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What about 420?? Far out dude, far out.
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How did you possibly forget 867-5309!?
I go to Pomona College. Trust me that *no one* ever has, does, or shall believe that the number 47 appears more often in nature than expected.
Also, the story about the math theory is false. The number started when a math major (I’m a math major, I’ve read the thesis) facetiously attempted to show that the number came up more often in nature than one would expect. Most people think he chose 47 because it was prime and the number of the exit one takes to get to Pomona.