Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Lost Numbers


What is the meaning of the Lost, one of ABC television shows, numbers? I checked several websites and might find an answer of this question. It is from the Shaw-Basho Polynomial.

I plugged 0 into the polyomial to get 4, and then I plugged in 1 to get 12, etc. I got the following infinite sequence of numbers:

4 12 35 89 213 511 1194 2622 5346 10150 18093 ... (goes on forever)

Not too interesting, eh? Then I wrote out the differences of succeeding numbers in the sequence. For example, 12 - 4 = 8, 35 - 12 = 23, 89 - 35 = 54, etc.

8 23 54 124 298 683 1428 2624 4804 7943 ... (goes on forever)

I kept doing this process. The third sequence began 23 - 8 = 15, 54 - 23 = 31, etc. When you keep going, something completely unexpected happens! Here - I've done the work for you:

SEQUENCE 1: 4 12 35 89 213 511 1194 2622 5346 10150 18093 ... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 2:
8 23 54 124 298 683 1428 2624 4804 7943 12458... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 3:
15 31 70 174 385 745 1296 2080 3139 4515 6250... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 4:
16 39 104 211 360 551 784 1059 1376 1735 ... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 5:
23 65 107 149 191 233 275 317 359 ... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 6:
42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 7: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 8: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 9: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 10: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
And it stays at zero forever. The sequence destroys itself.

These six numbers are interesting to me. This is not a integer sequence.There is one a prime number, 23. Also, they are not perfect numbers, is the same as the sum of its divisors except itself such as 6=1+2+3. They are not decimals of Pi, an irrational number which means that its decimal expansion never ends or repeats.

What is the Shaw-Basho polynomial?

It is a well chosen polynomial that together with a well chosen set of operations generates the Lost Numbers. It is not canonical Lost-content. It is not of mathematical significance. It is not endorsed by the author of this page. It is just a hoax.

  • Use a search engine to look for Shaw-Basho polynomial. The hits will be the hoax page and some forum comments.
  • Shaw and Basho are not famous mathematicians. Just the perpetrator and his cat.
  • Infinitely many Integer Sequences can be generated using the same technique and a well chosen polynomial.

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