Numberphile Explains the World's Most Evil Number Named After One of Hell's Princes

The 31 digit numerical called Belphegor's prime after the demon of inventiveness is the source of the much-feared 666 number of the beast and the unlucky 13.
Loukia Papadopoulos

As engineers, mathematicians and all science folk alike, we tend to think of ourselves as rational people not influenced by myths or superstition. Yet, all of us cringe at the numbers 666 and 13 and there may be good reason for that.

Both these notorious numerals come from Belphegor’s Prime, a number named after of the seven princes of hell. The exact number is 1,000,000,000,000,066,600,000,000,000,001.

If you do not see it right away this so-called infernal number has a one followed by 13 zeroes, followed by the much-feared number of the beast (666), followed by yet another 13 zeroes, and a trailing one. It is a literal prime number (it is only divisible by one and itself) and it has some other creepy qualities we will let YouTuber Numberphile explain to you.

We will, however, tell you that Belphegor was supposed to be the demon of inventiveness responsible for helping people make discoveries. He was said to seduce humans by tempting them with ingenious inventions that could make them rich.

It was believed that when summoned, he could grant riches along with the immense powers of discovery and invention. Using these much-desired qualities, he sought to spread discord among mankind by leading humans into evil through their lust for wealth and fame.

Scary creepy freaky stuff!

Via: Numberphile

Numberphile Explains the World's Most Evil Number Named After One of Hell's Princes

 

Add Interesting Engineering to your Google News feed.
Add Interesting Engineering to your Google News feed.
message circleSHOW COMMENT (1)chevron
Job Board