Why is the number 1,729 hidden in Futurama episodes? | Hacker News Reader

Why is the number 1,729 hidden in Futurama episodes?

m.bbc.co.uk

101 pointsprogramsvalues22 comments

Interestingly, 1729 is also a Carmichael Number [0]

And another interesting article about Futurama math, which lead to a new theorem proof (by Keeler): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner_of_Benda#The_theor...

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmichael_number

Simon Singh also did a video on this topic for Numberphile[1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReOQ300AcSU

Numberphile a pretty interesting channel run by Brady Haran about all sorts of mathematics concepts: http://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile

Brady has a number of other, similar channels for physics/linguistics/astronomy/chemistry/etc.; most of them are linked from Numberphile's about page: http://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile/about

There's another reference when Bender meets Flexo: they get excited because they both have serial numbers that can be expressed as the sum of 2 cubes.

"We're both expressible as the sum of two cubes!"

Is it strange that the first thing I thought of was taxis and Ramunujan? I didn't even recall the significance of the number...

Same here. Ramanujan, Taxi, Hardy, Erdos, "The man who loved only numbers" but couldn't recall it's importance.

My first reaction was, "Did I solve this in Project Euler once?"

When Bender meets Flexo they exchange serial numbers and burst out laughin. When Fry asks what's so funny, they say their numbers can be expressed as the sum of two cubes.

I can't find the references to 1729 in the Futurama screencaps posted in that article. Would someone please point them out to me?

> According to Hardy, he visited Ramanujan in a nursing home in 1918: "I remember once going to see him when he was lying ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one and that I hoped it was not an unfavourable omen. 'No,' he replied. 'It is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.'"

I don't think there are, news sites routinely stuff barely related or unrelated images in to articles these days.

They say though that:

- Bender's serial number is 1729

- In 'The Farnsworth Parabox' there's a Universe 1729

- Zapp Brannigan's ship the Nimbus is BP-1729

Except Bender's serial number is very clearly stated in "The Lesser of Two Evils" as 2716057. Don't know why the author says otherwise.

See http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Bender (and I just checked the episode myself and confirmed it.)

1729 is actually his chassis number.

Bender gets an xmas card from the machine who made him that says "merry xmas son 1729" It's not his serial number but is sort of close to a serial number in a way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1729_(number)

This is really weird, because the article quotes a mathematician/writer for show: "For example, I chose Bender's serial number to be 1,729." The article talks about how 1729 is special because 1729 = 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³ (and is apparently the smallest number that is the sum of two different sets of cubes or something like that), but the wikia article says 2716057 = 952³ + (-951)³. It's like they are similar ideas but the numbers are actually different. I guess the writer was misquoted, or forgot which sum of cubes he chose...

Could have just been an oversight, there's quite a lot of them in Futurama when you look closely. They often change history to match their own story at the time, like Leela's mother originally had normal arms rather than tentacles in the earlier episodes.

Munda has tentacles even in her first (voiced) appearance: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hEtstZ7Ka2A/TwtZrM89ZPI/AAAAAAAAAH...

Though I will grant you that the design of her tentacles has altered slightly.

Her first appearance is earlier than that though, where she has arms — http://theinfosphere.org/images/c/ca/The_Turangas%27_First_A...

I think it means "#1 son". Bender and Flexo follow the same numbering pattern. Makes sense if you assume all bending units' serial numbers are expressible as sums of two cubes.

More here: http://theinfosphere.org/1729_%28number%29

Mathworld to the rescue with screen captures & episode references: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/1729.html

1729 is ramanujams number

Reply on news.ycombinator.com