h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

toybox already knows this, but I'll report it to bring in the new year: 3435 in base ten and 6534 in base twenty are the only four-digit numbers with digit values under 35 in any base (and most likely the only four-digit numbers in any base) that are the sum of their digits raised to their own powers. 3435 is the only number of any length like that, aside from 1, in base ten.

Note that 0^0 is undefined in the previous. Somebody who researched this strange matter previously assigned it the value 0, though the limit of x^x as x approaches 0 is 1. They did find one longer number with that rule, though. If you want to know what it is, search '1, 3435' at OEIS. No, I didn't think you did. Happy New Year.

in the new year this thread will continue to be hi-jacked by numerology

The thread is mostly inactive aside from me. That's not the same as hijacking it, and it's not numerology. Look up what the word 'numerology' means. The stuff I've been presenting is mostly *Recreational Mathematics*. Do you see me trying to analyze personalities, predict the future or anything else of the kind?

"The thread is mostly inactive aside from me."

I wonder why?

PP

That's a silly insinuation. If it is indirectly because of me, then it's directly because of the people I affect. Like I said before, skip it and do your own useless-facts thing if you can't handle my stuff. Anybody who can't skip over the things they don't want to read with some sort of system shouldn't be on the internet at all.

Where other languages describe a controversial subject as "polarising", all the English can think of is Marmite.

Sorry that you found my silly insinuation so offensive.

Nearly 6 years (base 10) and over 6000 posts ago (also base 10) this was the first post.

"Did you know that an ostriches eye is bigger than it's brain....a tiger has striped skin.....and a baby goldfish is called a twit. Did you also know that Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button, it was stitched up at birth. There, you feel better for knowing that don't you..."

6 years and 6000 post's including 100o since October 2009 can hardly be regarded as inactive. Can it?

Just reflecting. That's all.

PP

this thread has now become rather boring

fact

The ice cream cone was invented in 1904.

PP

Poinsettias are native to the mountains in Mexico.
(Poinsettias are non-poisonous [useful: feel free to disregard])
Their name comes from Joel Poinsett, who introduced them to the U.S. in 1825.

... and fuchsia is often misspelled as fuschia in English.

Charles Plumier named the plant in 1703, after the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs (1501Ð1566).

The U.S. TV series, Dragnet, had only one episode (24 December, 1953) that was not based on a purportedly true police case. It featured the crime of "baby Jesus theft", the 'prank' of stealing the baby Jesus from a nativity scene. (In the show, it was stolen by a little boy who promised "Jesus" the first ride if he got a wagon for Christmas.)

This was also the only episode for Dragnet that was remade (for color).

The first poem by William Topaz McGonagall to be published was a tribute to a local vicar who:

"has written the life of Sir Walter Scott,
and while he lives he will never be forgot,
nor while he is dead,
because by his admirers it will often be read."

McGonagall is widely recognised as the worst English language poet ever.

Not Paul Neil Milne Johnstone, eh?

I think I agree. That is worse than

" The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool.
They lay. They rotted. They turned
Around occasionally.
Bits of flesh dropped off them from
Time to time.
And sank into the pool's mire.
They also smelt a great deal. "

useless facts in base humour

My god, posts without excessive amounts of numbers in them

They make the place almost seem "active".

Now if only I could think of a useless fact.

Cheat, buy one of those "fact a day" calendars. Even if their facts are factoids, we have fun confirming or denying them.



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