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)
