5 ms·
Is this guy a, genius?
by bjoe_lewis 13y ago
Is this guy a, genius?
- ChuckMcM 13y agoNo. But its fun to play with numbers. One of the reasons I like 12, its so dividable.
- dakotasmith 13y agoIf you like 12, should definitely check out 60! It has so many factors, especially prime factors.
- ChuckMcM 13y agoProbably my second favorite number after 12. And not surprisingly nearly the ideal "small" company size, as it tends to provide excellent team partitioning.
- coherentpony 13y agoEvery number has special properties :) Edit: In fact, I'd be astounded to encounter a number that did not exhibit any special properties. Until, of course, one makes "having no special properties" a special property. In that case, I would no longer be astounded.
- quarterto 13y agoWe proceed by induction. Clearly n=1 is special, as it divides every integer. Assume k is special. If k+1 is not special, then it is special, as it is the first non-special number to come after a special number. This is a contradiction; then k+1 is special. ■
- samatman 13y agoWe may also proceed by ordinary semantics: every number is special, as it specifies itself.
- coherentpony 13y agoThat was extremely enjoyable to read.
- devgutt 13y agoCan you categorize the next non-special number in the same way? Now k+1 is no longer non-special, but the reason why it is special still exists, so you can't use it a second time.
- coherentpony 13y agoI think it was meant to be in jest.
- witek 13y agoI can't find it on the net, but in Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum' the final monologue by the wife illustrates that really well.
- btilly 13y agoYes. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Baez http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Baez for some basic background. See http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/ http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/ for more articles from him if you enjoyed this one. One of my favorites is http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/our-galactic-environment/ http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/our-galactic-... which describes our galactic neighborhood. Everyone knows that Alpha Centauri is our nearest star. But I bet you don't know a lot more about it. It is a much more complex place than I had realized.
- gems 13y agoHe's a somewhat successful mathematician. Does that make him a genius?
- abecedarius 13y agoHe's my favorite math popularizer these days. This article's a good sample of why.