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]
6 comments:
If they're Douglas Adams fans they may use "42."
Pi 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.
I 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.
Another 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?
I like the patterns associated with 37:
3 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...
Yes, they don't call it the Divine Ratio for nothing.
If you work with radioactive isotopes, you might use 238.
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