8 ms·
You mean the seven fundamental constants? e^(i * pi) + 1 = 0 * 17 * 42
by matt-noonan 7y ago
You mean the seven fundamental constants?
e^(i * pi) + 1 = 0 * 17 * 42
- tus88 7y agoStill not sure what i and 17 are...
- AstralStorm 7y agoNumber i is the complex unit, but I've no idea about 17 either.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- magicseth 7y ago17 is the favorite number of David Kelly, a mathematician and professor of Hampshire College. He loves it for a very large number of reasons. He was instrumental in creating a summer camp at Hampshire which has trained many young brilliant mathematical minds. (Including Vi Hart). Thus it has spread. http://www.vinc17.net/yp17/index.en.html http://www.vinc17.net/yp17/index.en.html
- oarabbus_ 7y agoYou can find such "collections" for numbers like 7, 8, or 13, even ignoring the integers 0-4, and 42 is obviously a reference to Hitchhikers guide, a work of fiction. Am I missing something?
- lucas_membrane 7y agoFollowing the links from that link, I find wikipedia for 17 says, "Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) showed that two regular "heptadecagons" (17-sided polygons) could be constructed with ruler and compasses." (I learned it as straightedge and compass.) Wikipedia did not mention the story that Gauss has a regular heptadecagon inscribed on his tombstone.
- lonelappde 7y agoSurely he loves it for 17 reasons.
- yesbabyyes 7y agoIt's the first arbitrary number. 4711 is the second arbitrary number. They were used as the numeric foo and bar when I studied programming in high school and college during the 90s. I always thought it was universal hackerdom, but I actually rarely see them referenced. Perhaps it's a European thing?
- tus88 7y agoDo you have a source on "arbitrary number"? There were no obvious explanations online.
- perl4ever 7y agoI was thinking, what is the smallest number not found in any sequence on https://oeis.org/ https://oeis.org/?
- yesbabyyes 7y agoIt's not a mathematical or in any way strict thing. It's just a number chosen to exemplify any number. Just like "foo", "bar", "baz", "qux", etc, a sequence of numbers could be e.g. 17, 42, 4711. I grew up with it, and googling it seems that at least 4711 is a German thing.
- boyobo 7y agoi= sqrt(-1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_identity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_identity
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- throwaway2048 7y agoits a joke about how Euler's identity isn't normally simplified and written as: E^(iπ) = -1 because people wanna be "cute" about it containing 0 and 1, so why not a bunch of other arbitrary numbers too?
- lonelappde 7y agoSetting an expression equal to 0 is quite standard form.
- avmich 7y agoRoger Hui: In the year 2033 Earth was discovered by Survey Fleet MCXII of the Galactic Empire. The Emperor ordered Earth to send a representative to the court, with strict instructions to “bring something beautiful”. Emperor: What beautiful things does Earth have? Earth Representative: Your excellency, our mathematician Euler proved in our year 1737 that +/(1+⍳∞)-s ←→ ×/÷1-(⍭⍳∞)-s Emperor: What is the ⍭ symbol? Earth Rep.: ⍭i is the i-th prime. Emperor: And what is ∞? Does it do anything useful? Earth Rep.: It denotes infinity, your excellency. Emperor: (ponders equation for a minute or two) Respect! Emperor: Neat notation you have there. Tell me more. Earth Rep.: Your excellency, it’s called APL. It was invented by the Canadian Kenneth E. Iverson …