Number Theory
Jevons had written in his Principles of Science, p. 123, "Can the reader say what two numbers multiplied together will produce the number 8616460799 ? I think it unlikely that anyone but myself will ever know." This became known as Jevons' Number and was factored by Derrick Norman Lehmer in 1903 and later on a pocket calculator by Solomon W. Golomb.
Read more about this topic: William Stanley Jevons
Famous quotes containing the words number and/or theory:
“My tendency to nervousness in my younger days, in view of the fact of a number of near relatives on both my fathers and mothers side of the house having become insane, gave some serious uneasiness. I made up my mind to overcome it.... In the cross-examination of witnesses before a crowded court-house ... I soon found I could control myself even in the worst of testing cases. Finally, in battle.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (18221893)
“Frankly, these days, without a theory to go with it, I cant see a painting.”
—Tom Wolfe (b. 1931)