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Published online 20 February 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.610
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Cosmic coincidence spotted
An absurdly large number could hold the key to universal mysteries.
The secret of the Universe is not 42, according to a new theory, but the unimaginably larger number 10122. Scott Funkhouser of the Military College of South Carolina (called The Citadel) in Charleston has shown how this number — which is bigger than the number of particles in the Universe — keeps popping up when several of the physical constants and parameters of the Universe are combined1.
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any chance at all that 10^122 can actually be related to, let's say, 42^42? Via another costant may be? =)
And here is another coincidence. Decimal 10 is “A†in hex, 122 is 7A. So the combination of 7 and A. “A“ – is total number of dimensions, and 7 – number of shrank dimensions! Further. A – 7 = 3 That’s our 3 dimensions! But 3 in binary is 11. And 7 is 111 ! Another coincidence? How about A in bin? Take a guess. 1010. Now add those 3 numbers: A+7=11 (hex). Or 10001. That is inverted 7 in the middle. Mind boggling
Why was my input previous screwed? Something doesn't want us to see this??? I am trying again. And here is another coincidence. Decimal 10 is A in hex, 122 is 7A. So the combination of 7 and A. But A - is total number of dimensions, and 7 – number of shrank dimensions! Further. A-7=3 That’s our 3 dimensions! But 3 in binary is 11. And 7 is 111 ! Another coincidence? How about A in bin? Take a guess. 1010. Now add those 3 numbers: A+7=11 (hex). Or 10001 in binary. That is inverted 7 in the middle. Mind boggling
Luca 42^42 ~ 1.5*10^68 42!*(42^42) ~ 2*10^119
e^282 ~ 10^122. Using a base of "e" makes more sense in the "real world." The number 282 is the number of planar partitions of 9.
The author will be proven wrong eventually. He may be smarter than me, but he is still a human and therefore incapable of understanding why 42 is still the cosmic number. The fact that humans keep finding 10^122 just shows how far away we are from reducing the universe down to the far simpler denominator of 42.
well 42^42^42 = 2.37937455 × 10127
The large number 10^123 can be obtained in a quantum cosmology utilizing three copies of the Monster group representation 196883. Two copies of the Monster are protected as a tensored Hilbert space of the number of vacua that represents one copy of the Monster in the theory that being [8.07 x 10^56]. This utilizes all copies on a 22 dimensional manifold immediately after the Planck Epoch: 196883^3 x 22 > 196883 x 22^3 [8.07*10^56 x 8.07*10^56] = 1.37 *10^123 vacuum density. This occurs from t = 0 to the Planck time where an orderly entropy falls out: S = pi196883 x 22. At reheat (GUT energy 1.64 *10^16 GeV) this vacuum density calculates to the absurd canceling QFT value: 196883 x 22^3/(196883^1/3)(22) x [8.07 *10^56 x 8.07*10^56] = 1.067 *10^120 (Planck units). One copy of the Monster group has degenerated to 196883^2/3 leaving the Hilbert Space for [8.07 *10^56 x 8.07 *10^56} preserved containing two copies of the Monster group. Due to an inversion at the reheat transition we can calculate the critical vacuum density: rho = (Mpl/lp^3)(1/8pi*1.068 x 10^120) = 1.922*10^-28 g/cm^3 Large number and small number are a consequence of the Bohr correspondence in the large N limit. In the case above the number of vacua [8.07 *10^56] represents large N. This is also gives the approximate supergravity.
It just has stricken me again. Only binary or hex numbers have to be used as a universal constant. Because as particles popping in and out of existence they either exist or they do not. Clearly 1 or 0. And only those 2 numbers have to be used when we are looking for something in the universe. So take a look at the 10^122 in hex notation: A^7A. Doesn't this remind you the supersymmetry from the string theory?! Now take a close look at A7A in binary. 101001111010. Symmetry is gone! But read it from right to left: 5E5. Symmetry is back! Looks like those particles popping in and out! Sorry guys, cannot tell you more now. I am going to publish this.
Perhaps we should start by speculating on what sort of simulator our Universe is running on. We would need 256 bits for the x, y, and z coordinates for example, and probably 512 bits for calculations. Keeping certain quantities below 2^405 probably is important for numerical stability.
Numerology lives!!!
As I see it the answer is darn near 42^75.1578951684585.
While I found the comments, especially those pertaining to 42 :), to be very amusing, I feel compelled to emphasize that there is nothing at all mystical or numerological about my work. As Dr. Ball clearly stated, I demonstrated in my published paper that the pure numbers of order near 10^122 are indeed linked by physics from the standard cosmological model. Furthermore, as Dr. Ball stated, the fact that there is a host of large, pure numbers of order near 10^122 as well as a host of large pure numbers of order near 10^40 is explained by a scaling law for the cosmological constant (which was proposed by Zel'dovich, Mena Marugan and Carneiro and myself, independently). <br><br> However, I do understand that large pure numbers constitute a subject that generally tends to summon the kooks...<br> --Scott Funkhouser<br> <br> PS Please see http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0611115 for the actual paper.
PPS The number 10^122 has an important physical significance: It is the maximum number of degrees of freedom (entropy) allowed in our universe. It is determined by the fundamental pure number c^5/(G*h*Lambda) where c=speed of light, G=Newtonian gravitational coupling, h=Planck constant, Lambda=cosmological constant. See http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0611115 for more details.
Well, there are several occurrences of ~10^40 and one of ~10^80 as well as the ones around 10^121. Obviously these are powers of ~10^40. What does it mean? Some suggestions... At a distance of 10^40 times a nucleon radius, a sphere will have a surface equal to about 10^80 times the surface area of a particle (give or take an odd ratio of pi) and so that happens to be the distance at which the outgoing wave of nucleons hits the surface of other nucleons in the universe. That is why there is an event horizon there. At that distance the volume is of course 10^120 odd times a nucleon's volume. There are actually other numberless constants and they continue the pattern of square and cube roots somewhat like this. Because of factors of pi and such that are ignored, the errors get greater at smaller numbers: (unfortunately you can't format in these comments) 10^240 10^120 10^60 10^80 10^40 10^20 10^13 10^6.5 10^3.25 10^4.4 10^2.17 10^1.08 Note that 10^60 is the ratio of the energy of the universe to a single photon of same wavelength. 10^13 comes up in the weak force I think 10^4.5 is the typical ratio between distance scales in the universe: Hubble, galaxies, stars, planets, .. cells, atoms, nucleons, quarks(?) [for more search "Ray Tomes Harmonics theory"] 10^3.25 ~= 1836 = proton/electron mass ratio 10^2.17 ~= 137 = 1/FSC It is all a matter of geometry. Most laws in the universe work as squares or cubes and so follow this table up and down. Have fun Ray
This is all greek to me (no pun..) I'm no mathematician, but this line of inquiry might reach further into the mystery if you include or overlap it with another focus of coincidences, the number Phi and the Fibonacci sequence. S L Grubb