October 30, 2007 Archives

Tue Oct 30 20:43:53 UTC 2007

128

128 is the seventh power of 2. According to heads more used to number theory than mine, it is also the largest number that cannot be expressed as the sum of a series of distinct squares.

You can combine the decimal digits of 128 with normal mathematical operators to give the result 128.

2 8−1 = 128

Numerology that is base-specific always seems wrong to me – it gets given a name, in this case 128 is a Friedman number. On the other hand, there's something slightly fun about the “nice zeroless pandigital Friedman number” 286435179

286435179 = -286 + 4 (3*5 -1 7) -9

128 is also the number of LinkedIn connections I had when I started this article :-)


Posted by Jim Cheetham | Permanent Link