The numerical properties of the number 5760 are very interesting, but so
is the fact that today is 9/9/99. Why should anyone use the properties of
5760 to suggest that it will be a year of destiny? If one tries hard
enough, one could take the number for any other year and find some sort of
interesting but unususal mathematical properties for it and then claim
that that year should therefore be a year of destiny. What events happened
in the other years whose numbers were ten times a perfect square that
distinguished them from all other years? Why should this method of
prediction be any more credible than astrology, which it resembles?
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
On Tue, 7 Sep 1999, Vernon Jenkins wrote:
> (2) But how frequently do situations of this kind arise? Clearly,the
> year number requires to be of the form 10xDxD (D being the dimension of
> some square). If 5760 be included, there will have been just 24
> occasions in Jewish history when these conditions will have been met.
> The associated odds are, therefore, 5760:24, or 240:1 against a given
> year meeting the requirements. However, if we further ask that the
> significant biblical number, 12, be a factor of each of the squares,
> these odds lengthen to 1440:1 against. In other words, this coming year,
> 5760, is only the 4th that will have met these combined requirements.
> The conjunction of 5760 with the millenium year, therefore, renders this
> particular year unique.