8 Tiny Numbers that Secretly Rule the Universe.

**Cloud9Gal** · April 23rd, 2011, 07:11

Interesting Read! This is about important in mathematics.

People are quick to tell you that money makes the world go round. While that may be true, there’s something even more important behind money and just about everything else you interact with on a daily basis…numbers. And we’re not talking about bank account numbers or phone numbers.

Read more about it here:

http://www.thesmokingjacket.com/ente...in-mathematics

Share your thoughts about it here, on SOH

**Astoroth** · April 23rd, 2011, 09:54

Tried to read it, made my head hurt....where's my power drill....

**stuartcox** · April 23rd, 2011, 11:00

Interesting read!
I was missing '42' though, as it supposed to be the answer to the meaning of life!

**AckAck** · April 23rd, 2011, 11:44

8 tiny numbers?

Hmmm. i doesn't exist (it is the imaginary number), so I guess it's tiny. -1, 1 and 0 are pretty small. Plank's constant is also pretty small 10^-34). Pi, phi, and Euler's number, however, are not tiny numbers - they go on forever....

Brian

**beana51** · April 23rd, 2011, 11:51

It still doesn't answer the Question,of "WHATS IN MY WALLET".....other than the "0"?
need some formula to change that......BUT!! Vely Interesting!......will try them on my next Lotto ticket!...thanx great stuff!!..<label for="rb_iconid_20">

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**n4gix** · April 23rd, 2011, 12:03

What a fascinating article!

It reminds me of the story (probably apochrophal) about the old dirt-poor farmer who somehow managed to scrape up enough money to send his eldest son to his state's public university.

When the son came home for his first summer vacation, his father pulled him off to side and said to him, "Son, you know I'm very proud of you, but... I need to know I'm not wasting my hard-earned money. Say something to prove that you're getting smart!"

The poor boy thought frantically, since he was absolutely not prepared for this! Finally, he blurted out proudly, "pi r squared!"

The old farmer turned livid with rage instantly, and yelled at his poor son, "That's it! I ain't wasting no more money on this foolishness!
Hell son, anyone smarter than a cabbage knows that pie are round! Cornbread are square!"

**Wing_Z** · April 23rd, 2011, 13:35

Since reading this, I am not sleeping well.
Would this be the start of an Euler Identity Crisis??

**aeromed202** · April 25th, 2011, 17:55

Ouch, takes me back to physics class. And for some balance, it may not rule the world but the one that I remember is the mol, used in chemistry to manipulate huge numbers of particles of something infinitesimally small. It is 6.02x10^23 of any base unit. Candy bars, airplanes, atoms, whatever. That many peas would cover the earth to a depth of three miles. Don't ask me how I remember this stuff.

**magoo** · April 25th, 2011, 18:26

...42.

Forty Two.

Phorty Tooh.

Fourtie Tu.

In the end (Which is also the beginning...)....somewhere beyond the darkest depths of the Mayan Calendar and the national deficit....there is a marrooned Englishman in a housecoat. While we contemplate Prince Bill and cutie Kate, the Englishman raises a placard with the numbers four and two. Maybe that'll put a Dent in our knowledge....

....We're just dying to know......

**Wing_Z** · April 25th, 2011, 18:28

Originally Posted by aeromed202

...It is 6.02x10^23 of any base unit. Candy bars, airplanes, atoms, whatever. That many peas would cover the earth to a depth of three miles. Don't ask me how I remember this stuff.

For some reason I also know that number, drummed into vacant heads by a zealous science teacher

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant

More disturbing is that apparently it is now called something different...

**Naismith** · April 25th, 2011, 19:07

I think Zappa hit the nail on the head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijrP-fEmyU

**heywooood** · April 25th, 2011, 21:41

once we dreamed of manned flight in a powered aircraft..

then we dreamed of landing a man on the moon...

now we are taunted by the exact mathematical equation that explains and thus opens the universe to our inquisitive minds, hearts and souls...

well - we have flown - and we have landed...

just a matter of t i m e now

**aeromed202** · April 26th, 2011, 03:48

Ah ha! I see my ruse has triggered a response. It is indeed Avogadro's number, the number of atoms in 0.012 kg of Carbon-12, with an atomic weight of 12. I think the name mol was a shortened from molecule, humf, chemists. It just gets worse from there...:isadizzy:

I need some coffee.

**hairyspin** · April 26th, 2011, 10:36

Originally Posted by magoo

...42.

Forty Two.

Phorty Tooh.

Fourtie Tu.

In the end (Which is also the beginning...)....somewhere beyond the darkest depths of the Mayan Calendar and the national deficit....there is a marrooned Englishman in a housecoat. While we contemplate Prince Bill and cutie Kate, the Englishman raises a placard with the numbers four and two. Maybe that'll put a Dent in our knowledge....

....We're just dying to know......

Oh just give him a decent cup of tea - somehow it makes things right. Just don't put the tea anywhere near a small piece of fairy cake.

And if you understand that you are nearly as strange as myself!

Thanks for the article, I'd heard of Euler's Identity but couldn't tell you what it was.