It's all a numbers game...

February 5, 2006 2:50 PM

Notable properties of specific numbers: From Planck time to milli-millillions and myriads.
posted by Rothko (15 comments total)

Everything can be understood by a typical undergraduate college student.

Thank you...I am far from a mathematician, but I still love this kind of thing. Nice link.
posted by feathermeat at 3:13 PM on February 5, 2006

This is very very cool. Thanks.
posted by aberrant at 3:31 PM on February 5, 2006

Good, he covers both Graham's number and the busy beaver problem. Excellent.
posted by eriko at 3:34 PM on February 5, 2006

I've linked to it in comments before, but this book is a really really nice work about the intriguing properties of various numbers. I don't know from math, but this book is terrifically interesting.

Nice find, Rothko.
posted by Dr. Wu at 3:41 PM on February 5, 2006

In the same spirit is Plouffe's Inverter, which will guess at the "meaning" of any decimal you give it. Somewhat more general (and in my experience more useful) is the amazing On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. Want to know what comes next in the sequence 1,5,14,30....? Just ask it.
posted by escabeche at 3:56 PM on February 5, 2006

Infinite Power Tower: Name for my next album. Thanks math!
posted by Jawn at 4:11 PM on February 5, 2006

bah
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 4:36 PM on February 5, 2006

Hey, Jawn, didja notice how the infinite power tower is notated? (Assuming the j in your username is pronounced like "ja wohl," I'm reporting you to the eponysterical authorities.)
posted by rob511 at 4:37 PM on February 5, 2006

Now I know that the constant I was puzzling over for a few months is actually the Omega constant. Whatever that means.
posted by patgas at 4:41 PM on February 5, 2006

The third link (on large numbers) in particular is fantastic. Great post.
posted by zanni at 4:50 PM on February 5, 2006

That third link reminds me of reading this when I was younger. Good stuff, good links.
posted by exlotuseater at 6:57 PM on February 5, 2006

Great post. but whoooooah!
posted by lalochezia at 10:16 PM on February 5, 2006

For you Science Fiction geeks out there, you'll remember that one of the measurements of the Void That Binds is in an increment of Plank Time.

Thank you, thank you. I'll be in the corner rolling 12-sided dice if anyone needs me.
posted by thanotopsis at 5:44 AM on February 6, 2006

@PotEoA: Heh - that was the first thing that I tried when I read about the link... :-)
posted by Chunder at 8:30 AM on February 6, 2006

“Straight outa Compton wavelength”
by Planck Energy

flava quark keeps CP time - violated. QCD in ‘03 y’all.

...I listened to a lot of rap in college while lookin’ at them physics books. Kinda got mixed.

Nifty post.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:08 PM on February 6, 2006