Posted on 05/09/2011 3:21:35 PM PDT by decimon
John Baez expounds on what makes the numbers 5, 8 and 24 so special
In the May 2011 issue of Scientific American mathematician John Baez co-authors "The Strangest Numbers in String Theory," an article about the octonions, an eight-dimensional number system that was discovered in the mid19th century but that has been largely ignored until quite recently. As the name of the article implies, interest in the octonions has been rekindled by their surprising relationship to recent developments in theoretical physics, including supersymmetry, string theory and M-theory. Baez and his co-author John Huerta wrote, "If string theory is right, the octonions are not a useless curiosity; on the contrary, they provide the deep reason why the universe must have 10 dimensions: in 10 dimensions, matter and force particles are embodied in the same type of numbersthe octonions."
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
Without a doubt, this is the perfect string theory thread. Or maybe it isn’t....
I 8 at 5.
I 8 Pi.
Seems like I remember that cartoon. Didn't Yogi zot a park ranger?
I’ve been saying this all along!
bump
God does seem a mathematician of some sort.
¨Numba. Numba. Too many numba.¨ —Vic Ten
12 the hard way baby!
I 8 Pi.
U 8 4 nought.
Don’t forget to bring a towel!
Well, for out of the way you can't beat the End of The Uuniverse. 5 stars I hear.
I thought is was 10, 2, and 4, or are these the best tasting.
You want strange?
4 8 15 16 23 42..
Now THAT’S strange.
Number 42 is racist.
“Old No. 7” always worked for me!
of interest ping
From the Gospel according to Darksheare:
The Unnions are here to destroy us.The Unnions had planned an invasion of Earth. But first they needed a staging point that would nourish their floral bodies. They chose an insignificant black dirt community in southern New York that suited their needs, then the invasion began...
At first, no-one noticed the bulbous invaders resting in the dirt. Awaiting the signal from Tan-en-baum, their leader, to awake and begin converting the native species to fertilizer. One by one, the farmers disappeared. But then, Ortho came up with a better nutrient for the native bulbs.... And the Unnions became overfed and went comatose. And the Orthos were the only ones who knew about the invaders..... and smiled as they ate their hamburgers with onions....
ping for later
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