Fake Banner
By Jim Myres | March 23rd 2008 09:24 PM | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
About Jim

Education: University of Cincinnati - B.S. 1972 (Before most of you were born) Xavier University, Cincinnati - M.B.A. 1978

Teaching

...

View Jim's Profile
This was my first post. A total of three people read it, it didn’t take long to be relegated to the garbage pile of scientific dribble. I am not going to give up on this post, if it can’t make it competitively then it will be added to "My Latest Thoughts." Here it is safe from the Webmaster’s delete button.

These numbers have been on my mind for 45 years, since I was a senior in High School. I can’t just let them go, they will probably be the last thing on my mind as a draw my final breath -

58132764

72645831

76125483

81274365

I first saw these numbers in the book "Fun with Mathematics" by Jerome S. Meyer, published in 1961. I have had them taped to my computer terminal at work for years.


The first two numbers are my favorites, I have been waiting for inspiration or insight, I want these numbers to talk to me - but nothing. They both have four sets of two numbers that should be telling me something 58, 13/31, 27/72, 64, some simple idea of shape, form or pattern. Mathematics, after all, has been described as the study of all possible patterns, therefor I should be able to ask and logically expect an answer to why these patterns occur and what they signify.

This isn’t just my flight-of-fancy, W. W. Sawyer wrote in "Prelude to Mathematics," (1982) "Where there is pattern there is significance. If in mathematical work of any kind we find a certain striking pattern recurs, it is always suggested that we should investigate why it occurs." The second two numbers just hate me and I don’t expect anything out of their apparent chaos.

Now for some mathematical mysticism. You may have noticed that each of the four numbers has eight digits, 1 through 8 that do not repeat. If you multiply any of these numbers by 9 your answer will be nine digits, 1 through 9 that do not repeat. Take it up a step, if you multiply any of the original four numbers by 18 you will get a ten digit answer with numbers 1 through 0 that do not repeat. Now press your luck, try to go three for three - a pattern is emerging, will it continue? Unfortunately no, no other multiples of nine appear to give any results other than chaos, but I didn’t try everything.

Back to the original problem, the four sets of numbers that appear in the first two numbers. My gut feeling is, this is more than random chance, but I do not have a clue as to why. If you have any ideas – reply.

p.s. note, this is a "Recreational Number Theory" post, emphasis on "recreational," not a hard core mathematics post.


Add a comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <sup> <sub> <a> <em> <strong> <center> <cite> <code> <TH><ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <br> <p> <blockquote> <strike> <object> <param> <embed> <del> <pre> <b> <i> <table> <tbody> <div> <tr> <td> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr> <iframe>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
CAPTCHA
If you register, you will never be bothered to prove you are human again. And you get a real editor toolbar to use instead of this HTML thing that wards off spam bots.