{"id":704,"date":"2011-10-17T15:25:52","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T14:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/?p=704"},"modified":"2011-10-17T15:25:52","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T14:25:52","slug":"number-theory-and-numerology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/2011\/10\/17\/number-theory-and-numerology\/","title":{"rendered":"Number theory and numerology"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a similar way to the historical link between\u00a0 astronomy and astrology<\/a> the subjects of number theory and numerology are also\u00a0 linked.\u00a0 The very early impetus for number theory was numerology.\u00a0 The Pythagorean\u00a0 school (500BC) were interested in the philosophical and mystical properties of numbers. Plato was influenced by this and mentions numerology in his works, notably The Republic <\/em>(380BC).\u00a0 Judaism ,\u00a0 Christianity and Islam all have elements of numerology.<\/p>\n

Number theory itself is probably older than this and goes back\u00a0 almost to counting and simple arithmetic in\u00a0 prehistory.<\/p>\n

In the same way as astronomy developed into a science, so did number theory.<\/p>\n

Definition<\/strong> Number theory is the branch of mathematics that deals with the study of numbers, usually the integers, rational numbers ,\u00a0 prime numbers etc.<\/p>\n

Definition <\/strong>Numerology is the study of the supposed relationship\u00a0 between numbers, counting and everyday life.<\/p>\n

There is another kind of numerology that is the study of numerical coincidences. This happens a lot in physics, where a series of apparent coincidences\u00a0 can occur between various rations of physical constants or physical observables.<\/p>\n

The famous example of this is Dirac’s large number hypothesis which enforces a ration between the cosmic scale and the scale of fundamental forces. Dirac’s hypothesis predicts that\u00a0 Newton’s constant is varying in time. There has been some work in understanding the implications of physical constants changing in time.<\/p>\n

Although Dirac’s hypothesis is the most famous, it was Eddington and Weyl who first noticed such numerical coincidences.<\/p>\n

The trouble is that this cannot really be called science<\/em>.\u00a0 Physics is all about mathematical models that can be used to explain physical phenomena.\u00a0 Noticing numerical coincidences by itself does not really add to our understanding of nature.\u00a0 One would like to explain the\u00a0 coincidences clearly and mathematically within some theory.\u00a0 Generally these coincides are interesting, but it is not clear how they are fundamental. Of course, this is apart from those that are really just due to our choices in units etc.<\/p>\n

Number theory also has some intersection with physics. Recently there has been some considerable crossover between \u00a0 arithmetic and algebraic geometry\u00a0 and string theory (via modular forms largely). I will have to postpone talking about this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a similar way to the historical link between\u00a0 astronomy and astrology the subjects of number theory and numerology are also\u00a0 linked.\u00a0 The very early impetus for number theory was numerology.\u00a0 The Pythagorean\u00a0 school (500BC) were interested in the philosophical and mystical properties of numbers. Plato was influenced by this and mentions numerology in his … Continue reading Number theory and numerology<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}