[time-nuts] Cautionary tale #4711

Steve Rooke sar10538 at gmail.com
Sun Oct 11 12:39:30 UTC 2009


I think you mean Life, the Universe and Everything!
Steve

2009/10/7 Don Latham <djl at montana.com>:
> Magnus!   42 is most certainly not arbitrary. It's the answer to God, the
> Universe, and Everything!
> Don
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Magnus Danielson"
> <magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org>
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 2:27 AM
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Cautionary tale #4711
>
>
>> Mike S wrote:
>>>
>>> At 08:39 PM 10/5/2009, Magnus Danielson wrote...
>>>
>>>> I think others can share similar experiences when they think back a
>>>> little...
>>>>
>>>> The tidying up in the lab seems more and more sensible.
>>>
>>> I've more than once blown a $7 fuse in a Fluke multimeter by overloading
>>> the Ampere range. :-)
>>
>> As long as you did not try to measure how many ampere the outlet would let
>> you have, then I still have some hope for you. ;)
>>
>>> 4711? Isn't that an Eau de Cologne?
>>
>> Yes, and it is a prime number, so it is used as "large arbitrary number"
>> at some universities here in Sweden. An "arbitrary number" is 17. Another
>> common arbitrary number is 42. The reason the number got in swing is,
>> according to the tale as I heard it, that one lecturer was fond of that Eau
>> de Cologne and referenced it in that fashion in his lectures. The number
>> itself comes from the street address of the manufacture, again according to
>> the tale I have heard.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Magnus
>>
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>
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-- 
Steve Rooke - ZL3TUV & G8KVD
A man with one clock knows what time it is;
A man with two clocks is never quite sure.



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