These Are the Biggest Numbers in Mathematics Counting to three is so easy, a salamander can do it. Seriously. Lab experiments have shown that captive salamanders are able to distinguish between piles of two fruit flies and piles of three. If you're not impressed, we understand. A human being who'd never taken a single math class would have no trouble doing the same thing. Yet as numbers grow bigger, our ability to comprehend their values starts to break down. Billions, Trillions and Quadrillions By the commonly accepted definition we use today, one billion is equal to a thousand millions. Note that a trillion is written as a one followed by twelve zeroes. Now take a pen, grab some paper, and write down a nice, tidy row of 100 individual zeroes. And Then Your Mind Blows... The number's size will blow your mind. Enormous as a Googol is, at least you can write it down numerically. 1010100 (or 10 to the 10th to the 100th) And if you think a Googolplex is big, get a load of Skewes' number, which looks like so:
Sunyata (Emptiness) in the Mahayana Context 1. Sunyata (Emptiness) is the profound meaning of the Mahayana Teaching. Two thousand five hundred years ago, the Buddha was able to realise "emptiness" (s. sunyata). By doing so he freed himself from unsatisfactoriness (s. dukkha). From the standpoint of enlightenment, sunyata is the reality of all worldly existences (s. dharma). It is the realisation of Bodhi — Prajna. There are two ways for us to understand this concept of sunyata in the Mahayana context. Mahayana teachings have always considered that the understanding of sunyata is an attainment which is extremely difficult and extraordinarily profound. For example, in the Prajna Sutra it says "That which is profound, has sunyata and non-attachment as its significance. Again in the Dvadasanikaya Sastra (composed by Nagarjuna, translated to Chinese by Kumarajiva A.D. 408) it says: "The greatest wisdom is the so-called sunyata." 2. The sutras often use the word "great void" to explain the significance of sunyata. 3. 4. 5.
What Mathematics Reveals About the Secret of Lasting Relationships and the Myth of Compromise In his sublime definition of love, playwright Tom Stoppard painted the grand achievement of our emotional lives as “knowledge of each other, not of the flesh but through the flesh, knowledge of self, the real him, the real her, in extremis, the mask slipped from the face.” But only in fairy tales and Hollywood movies does the mask slip off to reveal a perfect other. So how do we learn to discern between a love that is imperfect, as all meaningful real relationships are, and one that is insufficient, the price of which is repeated disappointment and inevitable heartbreak? Making this distinction is one of the greatest and most difficult arts of the human experience — and, it turns out, it can be greatly enhanced with a little bit of science. She writes in the introduction: In the first chapter, Fry explores the mathematical odds of finding your ideal mate — with far more heartening results than more jaundiced estimations have yielded. Fry explains: She breaks down the equations:
Pali Middle Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian subcontinent Burmese Kammavaca manuscript written in Pali in the 'Burmese' script. Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. Origin and development[edit] Etymology[edit] The word 'Pali' is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon. The name Pali does not appear in the canonical literature, and in commentary literature is sometimes substituted with tanti, meaning a string or lineage.[3]: 1 This name seems to have emerged in Sri Lanka early in the second millennium CE during a resurgence in the use of Pali as a courtly and literary language.[4][3]: 1 As such, the name of the language has caused some debate among scholars of all ages; the spelling of the name also varies, being found with both long "ā" [ɑː] and short "a" [a], and also with either a retroflex [ɭ] or non-retroflex [l] "l" sound. Geographic origin[edit] Early history[edit] Manuscripts and inscriptions[edit] T. According to K.
Did artists lead the way in mathematics? Mathematics and art are generally viewed as very different disciplines – one devoted to abstract thought, the other to feeling. But sometimes the parallels between the two are uncanny. From Islamic tiling to the chaotic patterns of Jackson Pollock, we can see remarkable similarities between art and the mathematical research that follows it. The two modes of thinking are not exactly the same, but, in interesting ways, often one seems to foreshadow the other. Does art sometimes spur mathematical discovery? Patterns in the Alhambra Consider Islamic ornament, such as that found in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Alhambra served as the palace and harem of the Berber monarchs. It’s a triumph of art – and of mathematical reasoning. It’s also possible to combine different shapes, using triangular, square and hexagonal tiles to fill a space completely. An emotional experience? The patterns are not merely beautiful, but mathematically rigorous as well.
Mahayana Mahāyāna (Sanskrit: महायान mahāyāna, literally the "Great Vehicle") is one of two (or three, under some classifications) main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. The Buddhist tradition of Vajrayana is sometimes classified as a part of Mahayana Buddhism, but some scholars may consider it as a different branch altogether.[1] According to the teachings of Mahāyāna traditions, "Mahāyāna" also refers to the path of the Bodhisattva seeking complete enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, also called "Bodhisattvayāna", or the "Bodhisattva Vehicle The Mahāyāna tradition is the largest major tradition of Buddhism existing today, with 53.2% of practitioners, compared to 35.8% for Theravāda and 5.7% for Vajrayāna in 2010.[3] Etymology[edit] The earliest Mahāyāna texts often use the term Mahāyāna as a synonym for Bodhisattvayāna, but the term Hīnayāna is comparatively rare in the earliest sources. History[edit] Origins[edit]
Pi and the Great Pyramid It was John Taylor who first proposed the idea that the number &pi might have been intentionally incorporated into the design of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. He discovered that if one divides the perimeter of the Pyramid by its height, one obtains a close approximation to 2&pi. He compared this to the fact that if one divides the circumference of a circle by its radius, one obtains 2&pi. He suggested that perhaps the Great Pyramid was intended to be a representation of the spherical Earth, the height corresponding to the radius joining the center of the Earth to the North Pole and the perimeter corresponding to the Earth's circumference at the Equator. It is true that if one divides the Great Pyramid's perimeter by its height, one indeed obtains a very good approximation to 2&pi. How can one calculate the probability that an architect building a pyramid would choose a slope which is so close to 4/&pi? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. But what Herodotus actually wrote is quite different.
Śūnyatā Śūnyatā (Sanskrit: शून्यता, translit. śūnyatā; Pali: suññatā) – pronounced ‘shoonyataa’, translated into English most often as emptiness[1] and sometimes voidness[2] – is a Buddhist concept which has multiple meanings depending on its doctrinal context. It is either an ontological feature of reality, a meditative state, or a phenomenological analysis of experience. In Theravada Buddhism, suññatā often refers to the non-self (Pāli: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman)[note 1] nature of the five aggregates of experience and the six sense spheres. In Mahayana, Sunyata refers to the tenet that "all things are empty of intrinsic existence and nature (svabhava)," [4][5] but may also refer to the Buddha-nature teachings and primordial or empty awareness, as in Dzogchen and Shentong. Etymology[edit] "Śūnyatā" (Sanskrit) is usually translated as "devoidness," "emptiness," "hollow, hollowness," "voidness." Development of the concept[edit] Early Buddhism[edit] Pāli Nikāyas[edit] Meditative state[edit] Chán[edit]
How to cheat at dice – from an expert in games Archaeologists recently uncovered a 600-year-old die that was probably used for cheating. The wooden die from medieval Norway has two fives, two fours, a three and a six, while the numbers one and two are missing. It is believed that the die was used to cheat in games, rather than being for a game that requires that specific configuration of numbers. Today, dice like this with missing numbers are known as tops and bottoms. They can be a useful way to cheat if you’re that way inclined, although they don’t guarantee a win every time and they don’t stand up to scrutiny from suspicious opponents (they only have to ask to take a look and you’ll be found out). It should be noted that using these methods in a casino are illegal and I’m not suggesting you adopt them in such establishments – but it’s an interesting look at how probabilities work. For a fair die, each number has an equal one in six, or 16.67%, chance of appearing. Loaded dice Loaded dice can make cheating harder to spot.
History of Computers and Computing, Dreamers, Athanasius Kircher The Llullistic method of Athanasius Kircher The german Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) (see biography of Athanasius Kircher) was a famous 17th century Jesuit scholar, who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology, medicine and music theory. Kircher's best-known work today is his Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652–54)—a vast study of Egyptology and comparative religion. His books, written in Latin (which was the common scientific language then), had a wide circulation in the 17th century, and they contributed to the dissemination of scientific information to a broader circle of readers. The name of Kircher is repeatedly mentioned in other articles of this site—e.g. in Napier's Bones, concerning his Organum Mathematicum, as well as in Kircher's automata. Most of his life Kircher lived in Rome (from 1635), where he was to stay, until his death, at the Jesuit Roman College.