Famous numbers

[Rigil Kent]

Nominal, cardinal or ordinal, several numbers are often instantly (or eventually) recognisable. So without peeking, who can identify the three below?

22/7

46664

149,597,870.7


Rigil

[st0nes]

Nominal, cardinal or ordinal, several numbers are often instantly (or eventually) recognisable. So without peeking, who can identify the three below?

22/7

46664

149,597,870.7


Rigil

Pi
Nelson Mandela's prison number
My bank balance

[Faerie]

My bank balance

Are you single?

 

[st0nes]

My bank balance

Are you single?

 

Unfortunately not.

[Mefiante]

The third number is the conversion from AU to km.

(They lied to you at school.  22/7 is not π.  It’s a rational approximation to π that already fails at the third decimal.  π is a transcendental number which means it has no finite expression involving only rationals and/or surds. A better rational approximation is 333/106.  An even better one is 103,993/33102.)

2.718281828459…

½ (1+√5)

7.29735×10^–3

6.022×10²³

0.577215664901…

299,792,458

As the man said, no peeking.

'Luthon64

[bobilus]

2.718281828459…

½ (1+√5)

7.29735×10–3

6.022×1023

0.577215664901…

299,792,458

1. e^1

2. No idea

3. alpha, cant remember the name.

4. Avogadro constant

5. no clue.

6. Speed of light in vacuum (m/s)

Here is a few extra.

8.314

9.8066

6.62608 x 10-34

1.602177 x 10-19

[BoogieMonster]

½ (1+√5)

The golden ratio.

Wild guesses:

6.62608 x 10-34

mass of a neutrino...

1.602177 x 10-19

and electron? The second one rings a bell along those lines...

[brianvds]

Nominal, cardinal or ordinal, several numbers are often instantly (or eventually) recognisable. So without peeking, who can identify the three below?

22/7

Approximation of pi.

46664

Madiba.

149,597,870.7[/b]

Astronomical unit.

Well those are my guesses. Lemme scroll down and see if I was right. :-)

[Mefiante]

1. e^1

4. Avogadro constant

6. Speed of light in vacuum (m/s)

All correct. (No. 1. is the base of the natural, or Napierian, logarithm.)

2. No idea

BoogieMonster got that one right.  It’s the exact expression of the Golden Ratio, φ.

3. alpha, cant remember the name.

Yes, the symbol commonly used for this physical constant is α.  It’s the fine structure constant.

5. no clue.

A tricky one, this.  I won’t reveal it yet in case someone would like to guess.  (Hint:  It comes from number theory.  Its decimal and continued fraction expansions are both aperiodic but it is not known whether the number is algebraic or transcendental.)

8.314

That’s the gas constant (in SI units).

9.8066

The standard value of g (in SI units), the acceleration due to Earth’s gravitational field at mean sea level.

6.62608 x 10-34

Planck constant (in SI units), the basic unit of energy quanta in QM.

1.602177 x 10-19

Unit of electrical charge, Coulombs.

Two more, both around 4:

4.669201609…

4.186

'Luthon64

[Rigil Kent]

0.577215664901…

Is it the Riemann convergent thingy?


Rigil

[Mefiante]

Well, it is the value to which a particular expression converges but Riemann is not associated with it.  Another very famous mathematician is.

'Luthon64

[bobilus]

4.186 - Heat capacity of water.

[Rigil Kent]

4.669201609… - The heat capacity of slightly more water ...   

[Rigil Kent]

A few more from pop culture:

22

42

101

664

[brianvds]

A few more from pop culture:

22

Catch-

42

Answer to life, the universe and everything.

101

Dalmatians? (I have actually never seen the film, or read the book, assuming there was a book in the first place.

664[/b]

No idea. I'm not THAT clued up on pop culture. :-)

[brianvds]

More from popular and semi-popular culture:

1984

1000 000 000 and 1000 000 000

2001

[Rigil Kent]

... Catch- ... Answer to life, the universe and everything ... Dalmatians ...

Not bad, not bad at all! "101" has several associations, as Google will instantly reveal. The 101 Dalmatians (1956) - which was soon followed by the classic Disney movie - is certainly one. Its also used in denoting a basic, general course in some subject or the other, such as Psycology 101.

664[/b]

No idea. I'm not THAT clued up on pop culture. :-)

664? Why, that would be the neighbour of the beast.

Ok, yours:

1984 - A George Orwell dystopian novel. I think the term "Big Brother Watching" was coined somewhere in it's pages.

1000 000 000 and 1000 000 000 - not too sure ... might be from a song by Tori Amos.

2001 The Stan Kubrick flick.


Rigil

[brianvds]

1984 - A George Orwell dystopian novel. I think the term "Big Brother Watching" was coined somewhere in it's pages.

If you have not read it, you should. Everyone should. And coming from someone who very seldom reads any fiction, that says something. :-)

1000 000 000 and 1000 000 000 - not too sure ... might be from a song by Tori Amos.

Hmm, I notice now I actually kind of screwed up the phrase. It should more properly be 1000 000 000s and 1000 000 000s.

[brianvds]

A few more:

57.295...

1642

1652

1859

[Mefiante]

1000 000 000s and 1000 000 000s.

Milliards & Milliards: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium, a 1996 book by Barry Sagan, Carl’s lesser-known twin brother who, separated at birth, grew up in the UK.
 

57.295...

Radians-to-degrees conversion factor for angles.  (Also, a good Celsius temperature at which to set your geyser.)

1642

Isaac Newton’s birth year (according to the Julian calendar; the Gregorian one was not yet in effect in England at that time).

1652

The year Jan van Riebeeck arrived in Cape Town.  (Had a school child’s help with this one.  Early SA history is not our strong suit.)

1859

Publication year of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

'Luthon64

[Rigil Kent]

.... Carl’s lesser-known twin brother who, separated at birth, grew up in the UK.

I must pay more attention to emoticons .... just spent 20 minutes trying to find some bumf on this guy!

[brianvds]

Isaac Newton’s birth year (according to the Julian calendar; the Gregorian one was not yet in effect in England at that time).

And also the year Galileo died. Perhaps his soul simply moved from one body to the next. :-)
Galileo, in his turn, was born the same year Michelangelo died: 1564.

[Rigil Kent]

Not a particularly well known number, but somewhat comforting if you enjoy chess, and worry about accidentally repeating a game in your lifetime.

10¹²⁰

[spoiler]Shannon's Number[/spoiler]