From Scientific American:
Measured to be equal to 1/137.03599976, or approximately 1/137, [the fine-structure constant] has endowed the number 137 with a legendary status among physicists (it usually opens the combination locks on their briefcases).
Mathematicians might use the digits of pi....314159 or the base of natural logarithms, e,... 271828
This is a fascinating subject. If you know someone's passion for a subject, you can guess their passwords. A Trekker might use 047, or an X-Files fan might use 1013.
Anyone out there have any other important numbers?
[Via Schneier.com who brought it to my attention]
If they're Douglas Adams fans they may use "42."
ReplyDeletePi always makes me think of that episode of Third Rock from the Sun where the Solomons go to a a ball game and end up cheering:
"Sine, cosine, cosine, sine,
3 point 1 4 1 5 9!"
That just cracked me up :-D
Well I think phi is by far the coolest number in math-geek land. It puts plain old boring pi to shame.
ReplyDeleteI remember the whole "line segment ratio" explanation just blew my mind during math class one time.
Gar Jen.. I was just about to say that.. 42 :/ Oh well.
ReplyDeleteAnother one that REAL nerds/geeks know... Is 1138. As in THX 1138 Lucas's first movie and hidden within all of his movies...
And if 69 is my magic number, what does that make me?
ReplyDeleteI like the patterns associated with 37:
ReplyDelete3 x 37 = 111
6 x 37 = 222
9 x 37 = 333
12 x 37 = 444
15 x 37 = 555 etc.
Even the patterns after 27 x 37 = 999 are interesting.
Do the math & see.
1.618 or PHI...
ReplyDeleteYes, they don't call it the Divine Ratio for nothing.
If you work with radioactive isotopes, you might use 238.