Ever heard of a TV series leading to something in math?
Something that always intrigued me was math that I could see, read and enjoy. I always loved the idea of math in TV series or math in poetry.
I always kept an eye out for math to be seen in a movie scene or in a show or just read about them later online (and of course realise that I actually missed it while watching them!)
I would love to bring out such amazing stories of math every weekend.
So here goes the story #1:
This is a dialogue between the 2 main characters in the famed ‘The Big Bang Theory’ series:
#Sheldon_Cooper:
73 is the best number.
73 is the 21st prime number.
Its mirror 37 is the 12th prime number.
Its mirror 21 is the product of multiplying, hang on to your hats, 7 by 3.
Eh? Eh? Did I lie?
#Leonard_Hofstadter:
We get it. 73 is the Chuck Norris of numbers.
#Sheldon_Cooper:
Chuck Norris wishes.
In binary, 73 is a palindrome: 1,001,001, which backwards is 1,001,001, exactly the same.
All Chuck Norris backwards gets you is Sirron Kcuhc!
Fittingly, this was the 73rd episode (season 4, episode 10 - check out the first 2 minutes!) of the show. Coincidentally, Jim Parsons (the actor who plays Sheldon Cooper) was born in 1973!
#What has this got to do with #math?
This little dialogue led to a math discovery called ‘Sheldon conjecture’. Pretty cool to have a math discovery on a character’s name isn’t it?
#What is ‘#Sheldon_Conjecture’?
As Sheldon tells, there are two properties of 73:
a) 73 is the 21st prime number.
Also, 7×3 = 21.
b) 37 is the 12th prime number.
37 is the mirror of 73, and 12 is the mirror of 21.
So, 73 was called as a ‘Sheldon prime’,
#Okay, so what next?
This raised a question: are there other Sheldon primes, i.e., primes that have the product property and also mirror each other?
In 2019, professors Carl Pomerance and Chris Spicer proved that 73 is the only #Sheldon_prime.
Well, can’t argue with Sheldon isn’t it?!
#73 is indeed the best number.
Sources:
<1> Dialogues from season 4, episode 10 of 'The Big Bang Theory'.
<2> Proof of Sheldon conjecture by Carl Pomerance and Chris Spicer.
Would you love to read about many more such stories? Let me know in the comments section!
#stories #tvseries #sheldoncooper #bigbangtheory #73 #sheldonprime #sheldonconjecture #bestnumber #funwithnumbers
Something that always intrigued me was math that I could see, read and enjoy. I always loved the idea of math in TV series or math in poetry.
I always kept an eye out for math to be seen in a movie scene or in a show or just read about them later online (and of course realise that I actually missed it while watching them!)
I would love to bring out such amazing stories of math every weekend.
So here goes the story #1:
This is a dialogue between the 2 main characters in the famed ‘The Big Bang Theory’ series:
#Sheldon_Cooper:
73 is the best number.
73 is the 21st prime number.
Its mirror 37 is the 12th prime number.
Its mirror 21 is the product of multiplying, hang on to your hats, 7 by 3.
Eh? Eh? Did I lie?
#Leonard_Hofstadter:
We get it. 73 is the Chuck Norris of numbers.
#Sheldon_Cooper:
Chuck Norris wishes.
In binary, 73 is a palindrome: 1,001,001, which backwards is 1,001,001, exactly the same.
All Chuck Norris backwards gets you is Sirron Kcuhc!
Fittingly, this was the 73rd episode (season 4, episode 10 - check out the first 2 minutes!) of the show. Coincidentally, Jim Parsons (the actor who plays Sheldon Cooper) was born in 1973!
#What has this got to do with #math?
This little dialogue led to a math discovery called ‘Sheldon conjecture’. Pretty cool to have a math discovery on a character’s name isn’t it?
#What is ‘#Sheldon_Conjecture’?
As Sheldon tells, there are two properties of 73:
a) 73 is the 21st prime number.
Also, 7×3 = 21.
b) 37 is the 12th prime number.
37 is the mirror of 73, and 12 is the mirror of 21.
So, 73 was called as a ‘Sheldon prime’,
#Okay, so what next?
This raised a question: are there other Sheldon primes, i.e., primes that have the product property and also mirror each other?
In 2019, professors Carl Pomerance and Chris Spicer proved that 73 is the only #Sheldon_prime.
Well, can’t argue with Sheldon isn’t it?!
#73 is indeed the best number.
Sources:
<1> Dialogues from season 4, episode 10 of 'The Big Bang Theory'.
<2> Proof of Sheldon conjecture by Carl Pomerance and Chris Spicer.
Would you love to read about many more such stories? Let me know in the comments section!
#stories #tvseries #sheldoncooper #bigbangtheory #73 #sheldonprime #sheldonconjecture #bestnumber #funwithnumbers