
The fifth hyperfactorial: 5⁵ × 4⁴ × 3³ × 2² × 1¹ milliseconds is exactly 1 day - slbenfica
https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/939499914794594304
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mavhc
(5 * 5 * 5 * 5 * 5) * (4 * 4 * 4 * 4) * (3 * 3 * 3) * (2 * 2) = (4 * 3 * 2) *
(5 * 4 * 3) * (5 * 4 * 3) * ((5 * 5 * 4) * (5 * 2)) = 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000

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greenleafjacob
Units of time are specifically chosen to have 5, 2, and 3 as factors. It
doesn't look so pretty when you compare with universal fundamentals:

> 1.000692286 milliseconds – time taken for light to travel 300 km in a vacuum

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monochromatic
Slightly off topic, but my favorite units for c are feet per nanosecond. In
those units c = 1 (plus or minus a couple of percent).

~~~
contravariant
It's even closer if you use a 'metric foot' of exactly 30 cm. Then you're only
off by 0.1%.

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monochromatic
> metric foot

Why is that a thing?

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contravariant
Not sure, but most of those 'metricised' units are leftovers from Napoleon's
push to make everything metric.

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didhshz
g in SI units is very close to pi^2.

And the weird thing is that it almost is _not_ a coincidence! The meter was
almost defined as a second pendulum (implying pi^2 is exactly g) but then the
variability in g was considered to impractical.

So then they choose the first meter definition (1/4 circ. if the earth)...
which is suspiciously close to what they wanted to define the meter with in
the first place

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srtjstjsj
1/40,000

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wcoenen
Still off by a factor 1000. That's the kilometer.

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Scooty
[5, 4, 3, 2, 1].map(n => Math.pow(n, n)).reduce((a, b) => a * b) === 1000 * 60
* 60 * 24

true

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atonalfreerider
A better title: The fifth hyperfactorial: 5⁵ × 4⁴ × 3³ × 2² × 1¹ milliseconds
is exactly 24 hours.

A sidereal day is not exactly 24 hours, it is closer to 23 hours 56 minutes
and 4.1 seconds.

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hanbura
The word day is ambiguous, but calling it 24 hours is not perfect either. A 24
hour period can include leap seconds, meaning it can be one second longer or
shorter than 24 * 60 * 60 seconds.

(At least that's how ISO8601 defines time periods: 11pm-12am is a one hour
period even if leap seconds cause the last minute to have 59 or 61 seconds)

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baddox
Also, 10 factorial seconds is exactly 6 weeks.

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LearnerHerzog
It is one day according to our clocks; it has no real significance in when
compared to an actual day which is 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds- the time it
takes the earth to make one full rotation.

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teilo
Come again? If that were true, then the clock would advance past the actual
time of day 2 hour for every month (30.5 days to be precise). And that would
mean that in 6 months, midnight would be at high noon. So...

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hodgesrm
Indeed. But the earth is simultaneously orbiting about the Sun, which changes
the apparent length of a day by approximately 3.95 minutes. (I.e.,
approximately 24 * 60 / 365 minutes).

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teilo
Right. A sidereal day. Sorry. His point flew right over my head. I see it now.

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em3rgent0rdr
So what? Coincidences occur all the time. Unless they expose a deeper hidden
scientific/mathematical truth (which is not the case here), they aren't worth
mentioning. Since the number of things that can be compared is astronomically
huge (and increases every day), the chances of having coincidences is huge
(and increases every day). The birthday paradox is an example of how common
coincidences really are.

Numerologists of centuries past wasted lots of intellectual potential by
obsessing over simple coincidences.

~~~
packetslave
Says the guy who submitted a link to "Duck Penises Grow Bigger Among Rivals"

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
That was a scientific article, which was quite insightful to how evolution
works...in summary:

Flightless birds can carry around the extra weight, so grow big penises to
impress mates, while flying birds can't afford the weight and so must result
to colorful feathers to impress mates.

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gerdesj
OK, so far we have a Javascript and possibly C based "proof".

Could someone manage a Brain Fuck proof or perhaps ASM?

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jsjohnst
++++++++++[>+>+++>+++++++>++++++++++<<<<-]>>>\--.>+++++++++++.<<++.>>++++++++++.----------.++++++.<<.>>\---.-------------.----.+++++++++++..+++++++++++++.<<.>>\-----.------------.+.+++++.---.<<.>>+++++++++.------------.+.++++++++++.<<.>>\----------------.++++++++++++.--..--------.+++++++++.++++++.<<.>>\-----.---------..-.+++++++++++++.-------------.-.<<.>>\---.+++++++++++++.+++++++++++.<<.>>\---.---------------------.+++++++++++.+++++++++.----------------.<\-----.

~~~
gerdesj
Are you referring to my comment or yours?

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jsjohnst
Both

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beagle3
Another neat trick: the number of seconds in a day is 864e2 (easier to
remember than 86400 for me)

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abhisuri97
const hyperFactorial = (n) =>
[...Array(n+1).keys()].map(Math.pow).reduce((a,b) => a * b)

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juancn
Also 10! seconds is exactly six weeks.

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ngcc_hk
42 = 10! In one of the tweet there is another surprise.

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GIFtheory
Obligatory xkcd: [https://xkcd.com/1047/](https://xkcd.com/1047/)

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danjoc
Off by one

[https://www.timeanddate.com/time/earth-
rotation.html](https://www.timeanddate.com/time/earth-rotation.html)

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MPSimmons
This is only true if you have no idea of how many milliseconds are in a day.

On the other hand, it IS very _close_ to a day, which is neat.

But it's not exactly a day. Within a few miliseconds, days drift quite a bit
because of shifts in the center of gravity and the moment of inertia.

The Three Gorges Dam and the Boxing Day quake both measurably changed the rate
of the Earth's spin.

~~~
hanbura
It is _exactly_ the length of a civil day in TAI (International Atomic Time).
It also happens to match almost all civil days in UTC-derived timezones (with
the exception of leap seconds, daylight savings, and timezones switching to a
different UTC offset)

It doesn't match solar days, but most people don't actually use solar days.

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danislu2
This is the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.

"The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says
God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing.' 'But, says
Man, this is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not be chance. It proves you
exist, and, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.' 'Oh dear,' says God, 'I
hadn't thought of that,' and vanishes in a puff of logic. 'Oh, that was easy,'
says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets
himself killed on the next zebra crossing

~~~
akkat
> and without faith, I am nothing.

Care to elaborate? I think virtually all religions believe that God existed
before humans and therefore existed when no one had faith in God.

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knolan
It’s from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

From this and other similar works such as Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods or Neil
Gaiman’s Ameeican Gods, deities pop into existence from the pure belief of
people. It’s a great literary conceit.

~~~
akkat
But that's what I don't understand. Either God 'A' who is believed by Religion
'X' exists or doesn't exist. If 'A' exists, then even if 'X' didn't believe in
'A', 'A' would still exist. (At least assuming that 'X' is a subset of all
religions that I know) If 'A' doesn't exist then 'X' believing in it doesn't
make 'A' exist anymore.

I can't think of any religion where pure belief of people cause deities pop
into existence. Unless of course you are calling the fact that people talk
about the deity as popping them into existence. In that case, you can say that
JK Rowling caused Voldemort to pop into existence (how evil of her).

~~~
knolan
Well yes, if you assume that gods are real and reveal themselves to the world
they created. Then you go down he dreary path of prime motivators etc. That’s
no fun.

If on the other hand you start with the premise that there is a magical world
created somehow then lesser gods can exist and cease to exist for all manner
of reasons. We can apply it to the real world in the context of cultural
memes. J.K. Rowling didn’t cause Voldemort to pop into existence, the fans of
the books and those who got hysterical over depictions of witchcraft did.

